It’s a Question of Identity

Has anyone else out there ever struggled to fit in? Perhaps you tried to fit in better by changing parts of yourself to align with what you thought others wanted or expected of you. Perhaps you struggled to fit in during certain situations such as at school, with friends, or at work. I recently saw a powerful TEDx by America Ferrera where she speaks eloquently and in-depth about this topic with a powerful focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. In her TEDx Talk she speaks about feeling “Too brown … Too fat … Too poor … Too unsophisticated” and everything she did to change the way she looked so she could fit in better in Hollywood. Along her journey she realized, “Change will come when each of us has the courage to question our own fundamental values and beliefs.”

Once she completed that reflection, she had a second powerful revelation:

“My identity is not my obstacle. My identity is my superpower.” - America Ferrera

What a powerful, hard-won revelation. And one that so many of us need to grasp,

For years I struggled with trying to live up to real and sometimes self-imposed expectations. In that struggle, I lost sight of my values which resulted in misalignment between my behaviors. I wrote it about this struggle in this blog post. I also lost sight of my identity during this time. I could not disentangle who I was at my core from what I did for work. My work was my identity, and my self-worth was heavily tied to the results we saw. It took years of working with my executive coach, Lori Siegworth, to peel back the proverbial onion to find who I was at my core and, in so doing, unlock my identity superpower.

Do you look at your identity as a superpower? Have you courageously questioned your fundamental values and beliefs? Are you looking for someone to come along side you in your journey to find greater meaning at work and in life? Please reach out if you would like an executive coach to join you in your journey.