Your habits, choices, and actions ultimately make up who you are, your identity. It is important as your identity continues to evolve, you understand what’s within its foundation. It is easy to get caught up in the hype and build an unstable foundation on external outcomes. However, almost all external outcomes are completely out of our control and vanity. How can we ensure our identity is aligned with things that are within in our control? Then it can be solely up to us.
“It’s important, finding your worth in something that can’t be taken away by others.”
Kollin Moore, 4x All American & 3x Big Ten Champion Wrestler for Ohio State explained on The Chasing Edges Podcast with Brian Peters how he leaned into his faith when removing his identity from sport and his results.
We can absolutely love our sport and our craft, especially as we dedicate our time, energy, and life to it. However, it is also possible to hold our identity in things that are within our control at the same time. For example, our effort, our attitude, actions and the kind of person we choose to be are all under our control. Challenging ourselves to lean into the most important practice in Stoic Philosophy, differentiating what we can change and what we can’t (Daily Stoic January 1st) as a place to start. Things that we can change and that are under our control can be our foundation of our identity. This will give us more strength when we hit hardships in life.
What is your identity? What is within in your control?
How do those align?