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Goals determine your identity, which determines your personality. That is the major postulation of a 2020 book entitled Personality Isn’t Permanent by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, who holds a PhD in organizational psychology.
And you know what? I think he’s right. As he points out, we live in a society that values maintaining a constant identity and personality. Have you ever heard someone say in praise of someone else, “he really knows who he is!”? It’s one thing to be confident and self-assured, which I think is what we admire in those people. It’s another thing, though, to be the same despite the circumstances, your aims, or both demanding a different version of you. This sort of inflexibility keeps people’s growth stagnant and sentences them to a life of only being a) capable of what they were capable of before and b) able to process information that allows them to remain who they are right now.
Regardless of our hero worship of people who seemingly remain the same over time, people can and do change. Keep in mind that goals determine each of our identities, which in turn determine each of our personalities. Goals ought to shift over time as we and our circumstances shift. But the problem, as Dr. Hardy lays out, is that we rarely, if ever, determine our goals consciously.
Our laissez-faire attitudes to the driving force behind our own identities are causing us to be swept along by life. But wouldn’t you rather gain the capability to take command of what you are striving for and who you are? Since beliefs and identity are so tightly wrapped up together, I contend that it’s impossible to truly examine your beliefs if you aren’t truly examining your goals, as they are what determines your identity.
The good news is that Dr. Hardy has some ways to be more conscious about setting your goals so that your identity can gain the flexibility necessary to truly examine our deeply held beliefs, as well as to change the personality traits we have that are maladaptive to the world we live in. If you’re interested in learning the flexibility necessary to do the most in life and to think as clearly as possible about it, Personality Isn’t Permanent is a fantastic start. It could very well change what you believe about yourself and, quite possibly, everything else as well.
If that sounds like something you’d benefit from, click on the book icon above or link below.
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