How You See Yourself Is Critical To Your Re*Shift

You see yourself in a particular way—the stories you tell about who you are, what you believe and how you got yourself here, right now.

You might be quite attached to your identity—most of us are.

Until things change.

Sometimes, there are events you can’t control: your kids leaving home for the last time, the death of a loved one, changes in the marketplace. They add or subtract elements to your identity you might not want, but ultimately must accept.

But many other times, the choice of whether and how to alter how you see yourself—your core identity—is up to you.

The good news is that you seldom have to make a hard right or left turn. You can simply try some small experiments to prove to yourself that a new direction makes sense (or pivot quickly if it doesn’t).

But you will need a flexible mindset and the ability to stop thinking of your identity as fixed—and start seeing it as fluid.

Fluid as in, “Oh yes, I spent part of my career making giant corporate mergers work, but now I live for coaching leaders behind the scenes.”

Or, “I decided I was done with serving clients and now I spend my time writing books while thoroughly enjoying ____________ (insert favorite hobby/pastime).”

Or even “When the marketplace for my services changed, it was devastating but I realized I didn’t want to work that way anymore—it freed me to focus on _________ (insert new idea) and I’m re-energized again!”

These kinds of re*shifts won’t happen overnight—which means you’ll want to give yourself some grace while you figure it out.