#1271 - work and identity
In fact, the word identity was originally derived from the Latin words essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly. Your identity is literally your "repeated beingness".
The quote above is from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. In short, he says that you are what you do every day.
I love this stance on identity because it has two perspectives in it.
The first is that what you do reflects who you are. Your essence manifests in the world through your actions. However, that process of manifestation is driven by your beliefs and conditionings. So, if you feel a disconnection between who you believe you are and what you do, then it's time to explore your beliefs and practice some subtraction.
But there's also another perspective in Clear's definition of identity. What you do every day nurtures your identity. Your repeated actions are confirmations of who you are.
As Aristotle wrote in 350 B.C.E.
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts."
You shape and nurture your identity every day through what you do.
So, suppose you feel a disconnection between your perceived and manifested identity. In that case, you can redesign your actions and habits to nurture the identity you want to manifest in the world.
That's why the conversations about work shouldn't focus only on its form but should look deeper. Your job is probably one of the things that mainly contribute to defining your identity. What you do and how you do it says much about who you are or believe you are.