Today's Guide
✨Be prepared to jump out of boiling water
You probably have heard of this story. If you put a frog in lukewarm water and slowly heat it up, it won’t survive. The situation is changing but the frog lacks the ability to rethink it. A warm bath then becomes a death trap.
Are we smarter than frogs? Are we able to sense these slow-boiling pots and get out of them? Probably not, if we are reluctant to rethink, as Grant suggested.
So what to rethink exactly?
You can rethink your career, your habits, your relationships and your identities. Plan for rethinking as if you are going to the doctor for an annual checkup. Nothing goes wrong normally, and you can keep working on whatever you’re up to.
✨An identity checkup
In today’s discussion, we will focus on rethinking of identity. Let’s watch the video again starting from 5:00.
His story is relatable, isn’t it? You might have a similar version. There are some roles we desperately want to fit into, and yet we struggle a lot seeing ourselves in these roles. A fancy psychological term “identity foreclosure” was introduced here. Identity foreclosure refers to a situation when you settle too early on a sense of who you are and close your mind to alternatives selves. It happens when you reject asking yourself with the thought, “If I am not a _______, who am I?“ The blank for Grant is 'diver'. But you can turn this question into an actual inquiry:
“If I am not a _______, who am I?“ (share)
✨Know your values
But how? Grant’s method is simple but inspiring. He started by asking himself, what are my values? For him, his values were to grow, excel and contribute.
Okay, so here let us take some seconds to think about a question: What are my values?
Discerning where his values lie, Grant realized that he needn’t be a professional diver to grow, excel and contribute. Diving is a passion, not the purpose. By identifying his values, he opened his mind to new possible identities. Freeing himself from an old identity, he got time to dig into something else. Later on he became a psychologist, a professor and a amateur magician, where he grows, excels and contributes.
