One of the most powerful ways you can reinvent yourself in three to six months is through identity shifting. And that's what we're talking about today. I'll give you three practical steps.
We'll look at how you actually do this. So, what exactly is identity shifting? Let me explain it with an urban legend.
There's an urban legend of a goldfish that it can only grow to the size of its bowl. But then when you take that goldfish and you put it in a large pond, gets much bigger, eventually growing into those expensive koiish you see in Bond villain movies. We are just like that fish and the bowl is our identity.
You can also call this your self-image. How you see yourself. This is the deepest layer of who you are.
You have three layers of change that you can focus on. Most people start with the third layer. This is actions.
You want to get fit, you go running. You want to build a business, you post content. You want to get in a relationship, you start dating.
One layer deeper are the stories you tell yourself. So if you tell yourself, ah, business is too competitive, you know, I just can't get ahead. Well, then it becomes a feedback loop.
It blocks the actions. All of that is getting at the identity. James Clear has a great book on this, Atomic Habits.
He says that the goal is not to go on a run. It's to become a runner. That's an identity goal.
The goal is not to make a million dollars. It's to become someone who's financially free. The goal is not to just go on dates and, you know, waste time.
It's to hopefully find someone you vibe with that matches your lifestyle. And here's the problem. Most people want to change by going from the outside in.
But the faster way to change is to go from the inside out. And when you change your self-image, how you see yourself, that changes your core stories of what you can and can't achieve. And once those change, of course, you're going to take new actions because you're basically a different person.
You ever seen someone do something you thought was impossible and it totally rocks your worldview of what is? This is controlling the amount of money you make or don't. This is controlling the type of person you attract or don't.
And this is controlling your future you or if you're held back in the past like we spoke about. Now I want to give you three steps to do this. But first I want to tell you a brief story to really make this land of how these identities hold you back and are keeping you stuck.
So back in grade school I was a kid and we were learning multiplication tables. I'm sure you did something similar where your teacher gets 12 of you up in the black on the blackboard and she says, "Okay, you're doing the ones. 1 * 1 is 1.
1 * all the way up to 12. You're doing the fives. 5 * 6 is 30.
All the way up to 12. " Well, I got the 11s. So, I'm up there sweating bullets in front of the whole class trying to do mental gymnastics to solve these damn 11s.
I didn't know the trick that it's 11, 22, 33, 44. I am the last one up there and everyone starts laughing and I'm humiliated. I carried that belief I'm bad with math around through high school, through college.
It held me back from classes cuz anytime there was math, my identity was like, buddy, you don't do math. Remember the 11s. And so when I got into business post college for myself, a funny thing happened.
that belief I'm bad at math. All of a sudden, when the numbers meant something to me and it was my business, I realized I love math because numbers are just data. And if we cut this, then we gain this and oh, what if we move things around?
I realized that that identity I was bad at math was just a story I had been carrying around that wasn't true. And so, the reason I'm telling you this is because I call those identity anchors. things that strap to you, you carry around your whole life that are like literal weight holding you back and keeping you stuck.
The gap between who you are and who you could be is filled with the stories you tell yourself. So, the very first step you do to shift your identity is ask yourself, what are the three to five core stories I've been telling myself keeping me in the small bowl? Now, you're like, okay, well, what are my stories?
After working with thousands of people, I noticed four camps that a lot of these stories fall into. So, I'll just give them to you here. Take these, journal on them, and I bet your core stories are going to be in one of these four groups.
I'm too old or too young. I'll fail. And everyone will insert the word.
I'm not ready yet. I'm not the kind of person who fill in the blank. It's too late.
It's too scary. It's the wrong time. Or small bowl syndrome.
The most dangerous story isn't the one that's completely false. It's the one that's just true enough to where you believe it. Hey, if you're liking this before the next point, make sure you're on our refusing to settle newsletter down below.
I send it every Saturday morning directly to you with ideas that'll change your life. But knowing what your core stories are aren't enough because people identify them and they get caught in self-healing hell I call it where their whole life gets consumed with why they can't and they have to find the root and oh I can't move forward until I find this thing. So the next step is as important that I recommend doing as soon as possible.
In the same way people have blueprints before they build a house. You have to know a rough idea of who you want to become. What would make it a win for you?
And so what I like to recommend here is a very simple exercise, and there's so many different ones, but this one, if you do it, will at least get you started. You grab a journal, you set a timer for 30 minutes, and you write out your ideal week. This doesn't have to be 5 years from now, 10 years from now.
That can be really far away. But as if right now, what would your ideal week look like? Who are you surrounded by?
Who are you with? How do you carry yourself? How are you structuring your time?
What do others say about you? What do you do for work? Do you have any hobbies?
You want a bonus question? This is one that I asked and without it, I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to tour all around the world in one of my favorite bands playing sold out shows. I wouldn't have started this YouTube channel.
the question, "What do you really want, but you're too scared to ask for it? " Go after what you really want. Find your real motivation for it.
And guess what? Your motivation changes as you get closer to it. Like, it's totally fine for you to say, "I want to get in the best shape of my life so I increase my uh dating life and I look hot.
" That's totally better motivation than to say, I want to lower my cholesterol levels and, you know, have a resting heart rate of it's totally fine if you want to make a bunch of money so that you escape your current situation or so that you can buy the car you always wanted to or live in the house that you've been dreaming of. But it's a natural process to work your way through those base level wants. The reason I'm saying this is because find your authentic drive.
Dig for it. Not what sounds good on paper. Not if somebody reads it what they're going to think.
Don't censor yourself. Write out what you really want. All right.
So, now that you've identified your core stories, you've set up the 2. 0 version of you through your ideal week or exercises like that, you're ready to install it into your brain. You need the third step.
Now, I say install because your brain is like a supercomput. It processes over 11 million bits of information every single second, but you're only conscious of about 40. Every day you have between 60 and 70,000 thoughts.
He's law states that your neurons that fire together wire together. You might have had the experience of stubbing your toe and boom, you fire off a four-letter word. These associations are wiring your brain.
In fact, here's a video right now of neurons connecting. They're like little spiderw webs that when you're learning start connecting together and then that connection fires off faster and faster the more you do that. That's a badass video, isn't it?
Super cool. All of this is happening right now whether you know it or not. Your whole life you've trained yourself to fire and wire a certain way for your old identity.
So if you want to install a new one or what you just created or break one, you need to rewire your mind. But there's one thing that helps you fire and wire and break these connections like 10 times faster. You want to know what it is?
How can you learn by doing? I've said this before, but I thousand% believe it for you. Every 1 hour of doing beats 10 hours of planning, prepping, and researching.
Who learns more? The person who spends two hours reading a book on surfing or the person who gets in the ocean, falls off the board, gets back up, learns by doing. Now remember our two things before this.
The identity anchors. Well, how can you do something about them once you've identified them? You want to be more charismatic?
Start talking to every single person you see throughout the day. You want to be better articulating yourself on camera? Turn it on and talk to it for 15 minutes a day.
You want to be more disciplined, commit to a challenge like 75 hard or one that you come up with and make up for yourself. You want to find your purpose, come up with a list of 50 things you could try and go down the list checking them off. The key here is understanding that this rewiring of your whole brain and programming doesn't happen automatically.
And yeah, it can happen through learning and consuming, but it'll happen 10 times faster through doing and testing. Are these stories really true? Let me do something about it.
and testing. Do I really want this? Let me make this happen.
That is identity shifting. Hope there was a few things in there we haven't spoken about in other videos. Some fresh ideas for you.
And if you want to get more done in one week than most people do in an entire year, I'll link up right here a perfect follow-up. Over a million people have seen this video and thought it was useful. So, I think it's a good follow-up if you're looking to get more done.
I'll see you there. Remember to do hard things, bet on yourself, and make your future self proud. Peace.
