YOU & Your Leadership Identity…finding your way home
YOU & Your Leadership Identity…finding your way home.
♦ Who are YOU?
♦ What experiences have shaped YOU?
♦ Where has your journey taken YOU?
How do YOU own your identity?
St David’s Day, March 1st – A day where the Welsh nation dress up in national costume, pin a Daffodil or leak to their shirt and fly the Welsh flag with pride. For me, it’s a day when I feel patriotic, proud of my heritage and what it means to be me. Being Welsh is part of my identity.
Knowing who YOU are, what you stand for in life and where you come from are trigger questions. Trigger, because thinking about the answers can take you on a self-discovery path and sometimes not an easy one. It can feel challenging.
Our modern, autopilot lives can cloud over our identity. We become sheep-like, following the herd with a Border Collie to pull us back in to follow suit when we waver off (welsh analogy seemed appropriate!)
YOU and your identity –
- Who YOU are and What YOU stand for;
brings YOU closer to your WHY. The purpose of your life and why it is that you do what you do.
When YOU know what your identity means to you, YOU have the tools you need to creep closer to a place that feels like home. You can connect with your why and live ‘on purpose’ – a fulfilled life, a satisfying life and a feeling of contentment.
√ TIP:
Think about it – Try it out and complete a simple Identity Audit:
√ How much of what YOU do makes you feel energised?
√ How much of your day is spent doing what gives you that feel-good factor?
√ What part of your identity is aligned with how you spend your time?
Questioning your sense of identity can feel uncomfortable – it can mean you are letting go of what feels familiar. For example, working in autopilot can feel right to you, following a back-to-back meeting schedule, a structure for the day, repetitive conversations where you have the knowledge required, there is comfort in what you know – but the opportunity to change and break free gives so much more for you and to you.
Break free and live ‘on purpose’ – aligned to your WHY with a clear identity.
Redefining your identity is scary; it’s facing the unknown, but the irony is that it feels like finding your way home and the most fulfilling feeling available once you get there.
Your identity is like an inner compass. It’s your internal guide towards living a life that feels satisfying and worthwhile to YOU—a built-in radar that sends you signals about where you are going and what’s there for you.
This might all sound a bit out there, inner compass, built-in radar, but ultimately,
√ YOU know when you are not on track.
√ YOU know when something is off balance; you just might not know what it is exactly or what to do about it.
√ Give yourself some space and time to recognise the feeling rather than move on and cover up the cracks with what’s familiar.
When you’re not living your life ‘on purpose’, the cracks start to show up.
♦ Irritability
♦ Never satisfied with what you are achieving.
♦ Seeking the ‘what next.’
♦ Joyless
♦ Lost
Finding your identity, knowing what it means to you and living by it feels like coming home. It brings that comfort, and for me, it’s like having a cuppa with a welsh cake listening to the Stereophonics.
Living a life without an identity that resonates with you means you are living a life empty. At the back of your mind, something always feels off.
We all have times when we can’t connect with our inner compass. Work with someone who can guide YOU back and enjoy the journey.
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