People ask how I'm doing, and I answer with studio updates, consultation numbers and speaking gigs. Somewhere along the way my story about myself became a work report.
I recently caught myself on an interesting thought.
When people ask how I’m doing, I usually start talking about what’s happening at my New Lifestyle school, what’s going on in our studio, how many private consultations and speaking gigs I have.
Somehow, very smoothly and unnoticeably, the story about myself gets replaced by a story about my work.
In several of my programs I talk about personal identity and about how often people confuse their profession with who they actually are.
Answering the question “who am I?”, you can of course say “an accountant” — but that’s a job. Jobs change. Inner identity is a far more stable and deeper thing.
When a person has no answer to that question for a long time, or really dislikes the answer they have, an identity crisis can begin. That’s when you get a little lost about who you are and what you actually want from life.
I think about my own identity a lot. Some would say I’m a blogger, an entrepreneur, a family consultant, a coach, or something else. Right now I mostly see myself as a speaker, a methodologist and an architect. Those three roles probably describe my current life best.
So how do you answer the question “Who am I?” Which identity comes to mind first?
Have you ever caught yourself telling people more about your work than about your life?