Yesterday I was watching the movie “Catch me if You Can.” If there’s any movie that exemplifies the power of identity, it’s this. The main character manages to pose as an airline pilot, a physician, and a district attorney in Louisiana. He did all of this before the age of 19 and it’s based on a true story. While I’m not supporting con-artists, I think this movie can teach us some really amazing personal development lessons about identity.
One thing that is amazing is that the main character assumes new identities with absolute certainty. He poses as a substitute teacher, yet his certainty makes everybody else buy into his reality. Do you see where I’m going with this? If a 19 year old kid can get people to buy into the fact that he’s an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, imagine how endless the possibilities are for you?
We all assume identities, but we often assume identities that don’t empower us. For example, when I recently graduated from business school I was assuming the identity of unemployed mba surf bum. The funny thing is by working on this blog and using visualization, I’ve started to move away from that identity to personal development blogger, avid surfer, and to a guy who’s going through one of the most profound periods of self exploration because I’ve realized I have nothing but time, and I can use it to build the identity I want. Every day I discover new things about myself and about what’s possible in life. Another identity we tend to assume, is the identity of the victim. This is probably the most fatal identity to assume. This is really dangerous because victims are ironically very good deliberate creators. But, they blame circumstance, the world around them, etc. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So, choose who want to BE, and embrace it.
Tags: perception, self-esteem, visualization, confidence, identity self-perception
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I had a similar period after graduating from university and starting to blog. It’s true, we can choose the kind of identity we want to portray. I find it hard, because I don’t always have faith in things I think I want to be. But I’m getting there. Good to see you are too!
Great analogy and I agree with you that you are what you believe. If you believe you are the vitim, that is what you’ll become. If you empower yourself to explore and be creative, the potentials are endless.
That’s a great movie and so awesome that you gained such insights from watching it. We really do choose what we want to put out into the world in terms of our identity and this can be difficult and confusing and overwhelming at times. But it’s important to embrace who we are and just put it out there.