identity

In Western world (US in particular) it is quite common to define ourselves by our work identity: "I am a doctor. My son is a lawyer. etc..." While such identity stimulates us to make strides in our professional world, such coupling of identity to our profession comes with tradeoffs. One of these tradeoffs are higher stress levels tied to success at our job. After all we don't want to fail at being, and when our identity is tied to being X. Simply being can become tied to success at a job.

In high stress environments: To create healthier psychological mindset, and decrease our stress levels. We need to purposely decouple and define boundaries to the roles that we take on. We must avoid soldering ourselves to a role, without giving it the proper thought. As example instead of saying "I am an engineer", we can state: "I work as an engineer". What seems like a minor change of language, is a major shift in identity definition. As such adjustment creates a boundary with work role and leaves room to state what you are first and foremost, rather than having the identity bucket filled with our job role. When dealing with core concept such as identity: we need to use precise language.

Be very careful with unqualified "I am" identity statements, as our identity is a powerful force, and we as humans will do alot for the sake of identity. Try to change to a different unqualified statement and see how it changes how you feel throughout the day.

Counter Argument against separation.

"I work as X" creates high degree of separation (low professional identity). There are psychological downsides to this as well.

There is research such as China ICU Nurse Study that shows that while "Higher professional Identity" (Brining the job closer to "I am") does increase stress levels it also increases the work-well being. Likely due to us not feeling like we are just at a job to make money, and being able to find more meaning from our work. Hence, while boundary creation is important for high stress jobs, experimentation with modulating/modifying the level that we associate ourselves with the job is in order.

Taking Counter Argument into consideration.

Taking counter argument into consideration we can consider creating language that fully identifies us with profession while providing boundaries. Such as "I am X as a day job". Such language allows "High Professional Identity" while training our mind to turn off from work mode once its evenings or weekends. Being able to switch fully to other roles.

Identity-based habits: Focusing on who we wish to become.

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.

The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. If you’re proud of how your hair looks, you’ll develop all sorts of habits to care for and maintain it. If you’re proud of the size of your biceps, you’ll make sure you never skip an upper-body workout. If you’re proud of the scarves you knit, you’ll be more likely to spend hours knitting each week. Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.

Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity. What you do is an indication of the type of person you believe that you are—either consciously or nonconsciously.