07/20/2025
Your level of satisfaction is tethered to your Identity
Your Identity is connected to something - it's what you 'identify' with - a concept, an idea, a belief system, a group, a 'world view'
How you define yourself or how you allow others to define WHO you are (your identity) can have massive influence on the level of hope, peace, joy, fulfillment, and purpose you experience in life
The more gray hair I grow 👨🏼🦳, the more I realize just how much power 🧨 lies in our foundational beliefs around who we believe we are and how we believe our Creator see us (AT OUR CORE).
There are very few things I ha↧e but I 100% HA↧E false labels 📛
This might seem like a silly example but here goes...
From when I was in diapers it was said over me "what a good little cowboy" I was
over
and over
and over again
Guess what?!
I became a pretty good little cowboy!
And for a LONG time I identified myself as a cowboy - even when I wore a suit, drove a Buick Regal and sold Xerox copiers in Oklahoma City!
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with being a cowboy, hell I'm proud of how I grew up and proud of what I was able to accomplish as a rodeo cowboy given where I started and the tools I had.
But... here's where it can bite you right square in the a$$
When what you DO becomes WHO you ARE
And the only way to feel like you are fulfilled or 'successful' is when you are performing well
This is a performance driven identity - and I lived this type of identity for ~ 30 years of my life
It's a joy stealer
It's a fulfillment killer
It will cause you to constantly live in the future (gotta work/hustle/grind to get to the next level) and miss out on the present
There is a better way
Thank God I discovered it
JD
PS. Misplaced identity isn't exclusive to competition. It happens in parenthood, business, 'church', literally everywhere. I may write more on other areas where the battle for identity is manifesting itself that is wreaking havoc, stay tuned...