I am a woman. I am Russian. I am a Jew. I am a farmer, I am an American. I am white. I am young. I am an executive. I am an artist.I am confused. I am my work. I am successful. I am a disappointment to my father. I am hungry. I am in love.
The idea that “I am” – any facet of my identity – is a trap.
Each crystalized assertion combines a truth and a lie. Our image of ourself can lift us to greater potential, and it can bog us down so that we are stuck trying to be that imaginary person.
Where our identity is a real truth, or an aspirational one, maybe our image of ourself helps us achieve our fulfillment.
Where our identity of our self is a lie, perhaps the lie protects us against falling apart under the weight of truths we aren’t ready to face.
Or maybe the lie is a habit of comfort and no longer needed.
But certainly these truths and lies may fix us in place, like a bug trapped in amber, preventing us from finding a new truth, a new opportunity for fulfillment.
Consider removing aspects of your identity. Who do you become then? Are these burdens we carry that having dropped them loose us to soar higher?
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