What Stand In Your Way To Shift Your Identity: Obstacles To Shifting Your Identity

Obstacles that arise when shifting your identity 

Whenever you try to do anything you’ll face challenges and obstacles along the way and

that includes working on shifting your identity.

it’s not smooth sailing especially

because our identity matters to us so greatly and our brains will fight

to keep what we believe about ourselves

this post will discuss what are the obstacles that can hinder your work

in shifting your identity and solutions to overcome them

a reminder of why is changing your identity important

because it’ll help you reach your goals and dreams and

you can shift your identity for the sake of becoming someone you dream

of becoming aka become your own inspiration

And if you’re wondering how to shift your identity aka the process

I shared all about it

In my previous post, about how and why to shift your identity you can find our here

What you’ll learn in this post:

-The obstacles that arise when you work on shifting your identity

-solutions to overcome these obstacles

Let’s get started

Obstacles that arise when you start working on shifting your identity

As you know identity forms in our childhood time

because of what our parents and society tell us directly.

what We interpret their actions, words and messages

And then it gets enforced by repetition which makes it harder to change.

then you start acting/behaving in accordance with it and You don’t even notice it 

it’s on autopilot no thinking is required 

From that let’s get into the obstacles:

1-the people around you matter

People who you interact with daily or on the regular bases

will influence you and will enforce the identity that you know and have now

When you try to change your identity you’ll face resistance not only from yourself

but from the people around you because they don’t want you to change because that’s how they know you

and you’ll unconsciously try to conform and

don’t forget that you won’t have a chance to be the new identity

because you’re used to being that identity around them

You know that all people resist change except the people who intentionally embrace it

So, if you don’t want to cut these people out, especially your family

then reduce the time you spend with them

and get into a community that supports that identity that you’re trying to obtain/have

what you can do is be around people that have the same identity that you want to have

by friending people who do a similar thing to you

For instance, if you want to shift your identity to someone who exercises then join a gym, and go to classes.

Make friends in that space that’s will help you get the enforcement you need

to shift your identity to someone who is healthy, workout, active and so on

2-your old habits and actions

Your old habits are designed for your old identity, not the new one and of course, you don’t need to change all of them at once but you can

start by identifying the habits that will affect your new identity,

that belong to the identity you have now not the one you want to have

For example

If you’re someone who wants to be healthy you must have the identity of

“I’m the type of person who does work out, eat healthily” 

Since this is the identity you want to have look at your habits and actions toward food and workout

Note them by writing them and of course, you’ll going to find a lot of

habits that don’t go with that kind of person since you weren’t that before

Once you know them then you can see where you need to change.

then start building a new habit that goes with your new identity

by answering the Q {what does this type of person do, what habits does she/he has? What does she do? }

after that, start implementing one at a time, not all of them at once

since that will be too much for your brain to handle because

it’ll require energy and you’ll sabotage like crazy

one or two are enough to help you accumulate evidence for this new identity and

as you do you’ll naturally start taking action and making habits that go with it

3-self sabotage

Include procrastination, all or nothing thinking, overthinking,

overcomplicating, having high standards, fear of judgment, doubt, …

Is when you don’t act in accordance with who you want to be

because you don’t believe that you are that person yet which is a normal occurrence as I said before

Because you are holding two opposite beliefs about yourself at the same time

which causes cognitive dissonance aka identity crisis  

One thing to combat that is to make your belief neutral

not too positive and work your way up

Instead of I’m the type of person who eats healthy

I’m the type of person who eats healthy food  sometimes this won’t cause a lot of this

since you’re not absolutely which will cause the dissonance but you’re sometimes

which is much more believable to your brain at the beginning 

And as you accumulate evidence of that identity then you can change to the original one

that you’re the type of person who eats healthy

4-trying to be perfect about it

Having the mindset that you need to be/do it all the time and if you make mistakes,

slip up you beat yourself up for not acting in accordance with this identity 

The truth is that you’ll slip up sometimes, why?

Because you are human your brain will need some time to adjust that’s why will go back to your old identity

Your brain will Need more repetition than you think, how do you know that?

By looking at your old identity you’ll notice that you have been enforcing it

for all of your life up to the moment you decided to make changes

I’m not saying it’ll take your whole life before you see results

but it’ll take longer than a week, a month, or maybe even a year.

I can’t give an exact time period because everyone is different but the more you enforce by action the faster it’ll stick

When a slip-up happens be kind to yourself and do /be it

again at the very next moment if you can

5-expecting it to be fast

It’s human tendency to look for instant gratification and this is no different.

You want to be that person fast and you get frustrated

when you make mistakes aka act in accordance with your old identity

For example, wanting to be a person who eats healthy fast

and when you eat chips you get mad about it

Forgetting that it’s normal and you must treat it neutrally

your brain will need some time to adjust that’s why will go back to your old identity

be patient and know that every time you embody it counts even if it’s not all the time and will help you be her

you can think of it in terms of the compound effect whatever you do

will compound no matter how small it is in helping you reach your goal

so, Keep going nothing had gone wrong

6-waiting for it to click 

 Reading your affirmations and who you want to be without taking action

from that place, as that person, not making decisions now from that person,

not creating from that person won’t help you shift your identity

You don’t just do the mindset work and wait (no, no) you take action as you do that mindset work

and embody who you want to be then taking these (that identity you want to have do) actions from the person you want to be until

who you believe you are and what you do click

That’s why courage will be required of you and it will help get you to take those actions

7-overcomplicating the process

You may know what you need to do in order to shift your identity

and if you don’t>>> read this blog here for the full-on process about how to shift your identity

, okay but your brain may find it so simple to the point of disbelieving

which lead you to make it harder for yourself to do

which then leads you to Try to find ways to do it aka research more

because you’re thinking it can’t be that easy, right??

False, it can but you’re not used to thinking that things can be easy and simple

and you may have thoughts like

“if not harder aren’t worth it, things shouldn’t be this easy…”

But believe me, the process is simple

but what is not simple is the discomfort that happens in your mind as you work on being that person

It’ll lead you to have cognitive dissonance

because you’re holding 2 conflicting beliefs about yourself

This period is normal and part of the process of shifting your identity

and creating any new beliefs about yourself, life and general

Becoming aware totally will help you become aware when that happens

and normalize it and keep going thinking

” oh, this is normal” when you find yourself in that place

Something you can do is build this new identity by starting with something that is believable to you 

For example, if you want to shift your identity to “I am 6 figure entrepreneur” but that so beyond what you believe about yourself now

instead, choose something you can believe easily that is close to the new identity but not yet

in this case, if you work a job and earn 5 figures you can use that

instead, you can use (I am a 5 figure entrepreneur )

because you believe that about yourself in a certain context then all you did is shift to biz

after that, up that belief/identity to the ultimate belief/identity

you do that after you took action from that middle identity and

accumulate evidence which will help you in building the other ultimate identity

Or you can go about it like this, choose your thoughts on the day to day

to be more believable to you but at the same time lead you to the new identity 

That’s a wrap !!!

Shifting your identity is a tool to help you reach your goal because

in order to achieve a goal you’ve never achieved before

you need to become someone you’ve never been before so, get started don’t that

To your success

Wafaa