Identity & Transformation
How the identities you hold influence, well, everything
If you enjoy reading the Leadership Lab, consider clicking the ❤️ or 🔄 button above so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏. It would mean the world to me.
This is the best podcast episode we’ve ever recorded, full stop.
Identity work is the pinnacle of human transformation. If you want to change your life at the deepest level, get to know your identities. What they are, how they formed, the functions they serve, and the costs they bear.
My deepest transformation has come from uncovering deep seated identities and holding them in loving awareness. In coming to understand and feel them at a deep level, I’m able to come into fluid choice around them. In doing so, I get to meet the me that exists beyond identity.
You can do the same.
The process is hard. Shifting an identity from something that runs you to something you are able to see, hold, and choose around can feel like death. The moment you’re about to free yourself from the identity is the most terrifying. It is a venture into the unknown, where anything (good or bad) can happen.
I’m not going to summarize points from the episode because it’s just that good. If this topic is of interest to you, give the episode a listen.
There are no shortcuts at this level of work. So much of the current landscape of personal transformation is stuck in mental models, frameworks, reframes. These things may help you make marginal change, but ultimately they change the tune of the same song.
If you really want to change yourself, your leadership, and your life, identity change is where it happens. And this episode has more than enough juice for you to play with.
Listen on your favorite platform, including Apple & Spotify, or watch on YouTube.
Chapters:
0:00 Cold Open
1:03 Show intro & today’s topic: Identity
1:36 Defining identity and how changeable is it
8:48 How does identity influence how we show up?
25:17 How identity can be an obstacle
36:02 What happens when life strips you of your identity
38:42 The 4 Horsemen of Fear and identity
45:10 Identities that form from rejection
47:35 What do people get wrong about identity
57:49 Determining what identities mean to you
1:02:11 How do identities develop
1:16:52 Spicy takes on Identity
1:26:09 How to cultivate identities that empower you
1:44:58 Final Points
If you enjoy reading the Leadership Lab, consider clicking the ❤️ or 🔄 button above so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏. It would mean the world to me.