“It’s not your identity that creates your actions.
It’s your actions that creates your identity.”
You can shape your identity to be what you wish to become.
This is creative liberation.
Most people don’t know this.
I didn’t.
I struggled with dyslexia at school.
But I loved writing.
My English teacher, Mrs Thompson, told me I had no writing talent.
I believed her, so I didn’t write until I was 49, a burnt-out shell of myself who needed a creative outlet to process my depression.
I taught myself to write.
I now have 11k subscribers on Substack and am writing a book.
I am a writer.
Because I write.
Whether I’m a good or bad writer is for others to decide.
I write, and therefore I am.
Actions = identity.
Before I became a writer, I was stuck.
Stuck is also an identity.
I spent months having idea after idea but never taking action.
I had so many ideas that I was terrified of picking the wrong one and wasting my time.
The more stuck I got, the less action I took, and the more stuck I became.
I was stuck because I was avoiding fear.
Anytime I came across fear, I avoided it and procrastinated.
Creativity takes courage,
but I was consumed by fear.
The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it’s conformity.
Courage is an act of true self-expression,
saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
Conformity is an act of self-abandonment.
It’s saying what other people want to hear
That’s why being stuck is an identity.
It’s conforming to fear.
abandoning parts of your true creative self to conform to fear.
Do This To Remain Stuck
You have a creative goal. To write a book, start an e-commerce business, make an album, whatever.
You experience uncertainty, and there are multiple decisions to make.
Analysis paralysis creates stress and anxiety.
To avoid stress and anxiety, you procrastinate by doomscrolling.
Doomscrolling becomes your identity.
Every time you experience uncertainty, stress, or anxiety, you doomscroll. You reinforce the identity.
You’re not lazy.
You’ve just created an identity as someone who avoids stress and anxiety with doomscrolling.
And now your identity is that of a doomscroller.
And now you repeat this behaviour to reinforce this identity.
Do This To Get Unstuck
You face the same creative challenge.
You face the same uncertainty, but instead of avoiding fear, you experiment with your ideas.
Minimum Viable Creativity: Don’t write a whole book, write one chapter. Don’t spend months trying to find the perfect product to sell, pick one, experiment and iterate.
Clarity: Experimenting gives you clarity.
Clarity gives dopamine, which motivates you to take more action.
More action gives you momentum.
Now your identity is that of a creative experimenter who doesn’t avoid fear but takes aligned action to test your ideas.
You can become any creative version of yourself by taking the actions.
It’s simple but not easy.
Successful, highly sensitive creatives find ways to work it out; unsuccessful creatives get stuck in their head, finding ways it won’t work out.
Your actions = your identity.