All superhero’s have an identify. Think about Batman. He’s Bruce Wayne by day but fights crime in Gotham City. Everything he does orbits around his quest for justice and fighting crime in the city. It’s why he trained to become a scientists and trains his body. His identity impacts his choices.
The same goes for every other superhero. And that identity helps determine their lifestyle. We can do the same thing. We can choose an identity that creates a lifestyle that we want.
Great athletes do it. Tom Seaver, a hall of fame baseball pitcher, tied everything to his identity as a pitcher. In a Sports Illustrated article from 1972 he articulated his organizing identity:
“Pitching is what makes me happy. I’ve devoted my life to it. I live my life around the four days between starts. It determines what I eat, when I go to bed, what I do when I’m awake. It determines how I spend my life when I’m not pitching….If it means in the winter I eat cottage cheese instead of chocolate chip cookies in order to keep my weight down, then I eat cottage cheese. I might want those cookies but I won’t ever eat them. That might bother some people but it doesn’t bother me. I enjoy the cottage cheese. I enjoy it more than I would those cookies because I know it will help me do what makes me happy.”
But it’s not just athletes. Gary Vaynerchuk lifestyle is organized around his identity as a businessman and entrepreneur. Tim Ferriss’s identity is organized around being a human guinea pig and writing about it. And Hillary Clinton’s is about being a politician.
Some decisions come from a rational pro and con process. But most come from who we are. We ask ourselves, “Would a [insert organizing identity] eat this, buy that, say this, or do that?” The organizing identity can be whatever you want it to be. It could be your occupation–teacher, coach, doctor, lawyer, or entrepreneur. Or it could be your role in the family–husband, father, son. Or it could be something from your race, religion, or position.
Your organizing identity is important because it can make your decisions easier and quicker. If your a vegan, there’s no chance your eating that piece of meat. So instead of trying to change your behaviors and habits one at a time, think about what your identity is. What would that person do, believe, and think? What is the lifestyle you want? Is your identity congruent with the lifestyle you want?
Batman’s identity determines what he does. Yours will to. And you can make it what you want it to be just like you get to choose who you want to be for Halloween.