Invest in Your Identity
Today, we’re kicking off the series “The Top 17 Strategies to Become the Best Version of Yourself.” One of the most important truths you’ll need to realize before becoming the best version of yourself is that YOU are responsible for YOU. So to begin the series, let’s look at a few ways you should invest in your identity to succeed.
Read Intentionally
One amazing way to invest in your identity is to read. You may remember the phrase “readers are leaders” from grade school, and I’m here to tell you that leaders really are readers! Whether you read a paper book, from an e-reader, or listen to an audiobook, reading books across a broad spectrum of subjects will cultivate and strengthen a healthy mindset that will help you achieve greater success. Reading allows you to know some of history's and today’s greatest minds. While talking through your viewpoints and ideas with your friends and others with many similarities is helpful, it will only get you so far. You should read books by authors you disagree with and books concerning many topics. While reading can’t give you all the answers, it can create new connections in your brain that will allow you to come up with better solutions and help you understand people better. Sometimes working out the issues that may come up in your reading in your mind can help you work through real life issues.
If you need help starting your reading journey, I recommend Today Matters by John Maxwell, Atomic Habits by James Clear, and Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacobs. It may seem counterintuitive, but by learning the minds of others and how they perceive the world, you will soon understand yourself better.
Travel for a Purpose
A second way to invest in your identity is to travel. You may think of traveling in terms of vacationing, but you should never take a vacation from working on yourself. Purposefully traveling can help you understand people’s thought processes and bring their viewpoints into meaningful dialogue. Getting out of your bubble or comfort zone and interacting with different ideas and perspectives can solidify your identity into something better than you could have ever imagined. While it may be difficult to picture anything outside your world, traveling breaks through that wall for you. Breaching that cultural barrier can help you understand the way people different than you live their lives, with different goals and motivations. I’ve traveled to many different countries over the years, and every time I intentionally interact with locals, I find myself more knowledgeable and interested in others afterward. Everybody and every place has a story. Purposefully travel to a country whose story you may not be familiar with, and I think you’ll be very thankful for the experience.
Traveling may look a bit different for you in your current situation, whatever it may be, and that’s alright! Simply going to a new place outside your state is an acceptable form of travel. Some people spend their whole lives never leaving their state of residence, be different! Taking a risk with the purpose of growing and improving yourself can benefit you in unimaginable ways. While traveling out of the country is amazing for improving your understanding of other cultures, there is also a whole world of thoughts and ideas able to be seen within your own country. You just have to take the steps to finding this world, and traveling can begin even now.
Embrace Your Individuality
Another great way to invest in your identity is to embrace your individuality. This may seem obvious, but I’ve discovered over the years that most people don’t truly want to embrace their individuality. Instead, most people want to fit in and be liked by as many people as possible. But fitting the status quo won’t help you get to your best self. Until you embrace your individuality, you will never discover your full potential. We’re all different, and that’s ok; it’s the way God made us. This doesn’t mean we should be obnoxious with our unique attributes, but it does mean that we should invest in and embrace our individual strengths. Becoming your best self means working on your strengths so you can use them for your benefit and the benefit of others. Fit in if you want, but don’t expect a good return on your investment if you’re not investing in your natural strengths.
Prioritize Your Health
The last way to invest in your identity that we’ll be talking about is prioritizing your health. Being healthy is more than the absence of illness; it involves more than your physical body. True health affects the WHOLE self. It includes your spiritual, physical, mental, and social well-being. Each dimension is interconnected, and you will never be healthy until you have a strong, balanced life. While balance looks different for everyone, there are a few staples almost everyone should have. For your physical well-being, adequate sleep, balanced meals, and meaningful movement are non-negotiables. Mental health is a huge deal, and it frequently involves processing feelings and beliefs and checking your stress levels. (You can do many physical things to help boost your mental health as well!) And people with solid, deep relationships can often do more than those who do not. This is because those close to us often remind us of our positives and work through our negatives with us. People who want to see you succeed and help you up when you fall are vitally important to your identity, so if you don’t have good relationships, start investing in some today.
Of course, there are many other things that you can do to invest in your identity. Successful people are known by their actions and who they are. And while you may not have reached your definition of success yet, you can still become someone people respect. Build good habits like reading, traveling, embracing your individuality, and prioritizing your health, and you’ll be one step closer to becoming your best self.
