I think identity plays a much bigger part in change than I thought, on a personal and societal level. Today I’m talking about people, tomorrow I’ll talk about society.

Identity is basically a magical thing which allows us to derive joy and energy in arbitrary things.

When you do something that falls within your identity, you'll find meaning in it, independent of its difficulty or outcome.

I started running when I was 15 not because I liked it— nobody likes running when they start. I started because someone told me I was good at it, and, as a 15 year old who wasn't very good at many things, I eagerly incorporated that into my identity. I became a "runner". Suddenly it was a lot easier to do grueling training runs and races.

This was literally an overnight change. No habit building, no self help book, no life coach.

Of course eventually I actually got good at running and then was able to derive authentic joy from it independent of my identity, and eventually eventually I stopped identifying as a runner and just run for fun.

I imagine something similar happens for most people at some point. Maybe someone told you that you were a reader, and that helped you read hard books that you might not have enjoyed. Or they told you that you were nice and suddenly you cared more about being kind.

There's book on IQ called Intelligence and How to Get It, by Richard Nisbett, which is great for many reasons, but one part I really liked is how it criticized twin studies.
The premise of the authors argument is basically this: There are studies that have shown that two twins raised in totally different homes will end up with similar levels of achievement. It's like magic.

Except, it's not the magic of genes, it's the magic of identity.

Their identities end up being very similar, not really because of their genes, but because of little, genetic influenced characteristics that cause others to pidgeonhole them into an identity.

If two twins have bad eyesight, due to genetics, then both will wear glasses. If they wear glasses both are more likely to have a teacher tell them they are smart, and thus will be more likely to identify as smart, work hard in school, and end up with notable scholastic achievement. This will happen no matter where they are raised, as long as they’re within a culture that associates glasses with intelligence.
All it takes is a single, respected, teacher saying "wow you really like math" and those twins will push through all the barriers that differentiate their lives to end up at the same destination (probably a degree in math). We have science to prove that!

This is really exciting if you're trying to make a big change. Though you can't easily change your genes or even your environment, you can always change your identity. It's hard to know how, but most of us have experienced a sudden identity shift, or breakthrough at at some point— so we know it's possible! If we can make that shift, we could end up on a seriously different life path as a result.

Of course there are nuances here. Identities have a dark side as well. When the world shows us evidence that contradicts our identities that can make us feel pretty bad. There's a reason why lots of philosophies recommend keeping your identity small. But no matter how small your identity is, it has a ton of power. I'd say my identity today is pretty small, with the largest part being: "A person who is likes growth and change". However, this small identity allows me to get a lot of joy out of a lot of boring, difficult or painful stuff— because I think will help me grow.

I want to think more about how to create identity shifts, for myself and others. It seems like a really important tool that I've never really learned about. If you have any ideas, let me know!

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