Aspects of Identity 3

 

Awareness about Identity

The fine balance of external and internal identities makes you a whole being. Our identities are formed during the course of our lives and therefore it can be called as an evolutionary phenomenon that develops over a prolonged period of time. Combination of one’s intellectual abilities, emotional and spiritual being with the social and cultural forces results in complete identity of an individual. As discussed earlier, both environmental influences and inner characteristics contribute in making an identity. On the basis identity, you discover who you actually are and not on the basis of what you possess or do. The inherent characteristics that constantly motivate you and create zeal within, urge about things and phenomenon, and frames your psychology makes you well aware about your being and provides that inner motivation to strive and accomplish things and goals that you want to attain in life. Once you are fully aware about your inner identity, you tend to show less interest in relationships, companions, connections, friendships etc because you know you are completely aware about yourself and without the outer influences, you are a complete identity. This process is a prolonged phenomenon that requires a lengthy span of time for one to realize that external influences cannot alter one’s core instincts and attributes of life to the extent that one changes completely. Your true identity awareness about yourself helps in letting you know what you are at the deepest core of your existence. This stage of life can be called as the first phase of knowing oneself and living a sentient life.

Without being aware about our core identity, it is not possible to be authentic or original. One cannot be original without even knowing the meaning of originality. One cannot be real without even knowing what real means. Our identity has a strong impact on our profession or business, relationships, lifestyles, preferences, etc and therefore it becomes utmost important to know and understand who we really are. Being aware about our inner self helps us in being authentic and making wise decisions in life. For example, when we fail to realize our inner strengths, skills and capabilities how can be determine our goals in life. One need to know what one likes before one knows what one wants. When you know purple is your favorite color, you would like to buy cloths in purple color because you know what you like. When you know you have the capability of singing or acting, you will obviously want to be an actor or a singer. Therefore, complete knowledge about you is an important step towards forming a definite identity and attaining things in life. These small yet important attributes of life build an identity that lasts for a life time. Once your inherent preferences, likes and dislikes are known, you are recognized on the basis of your identity attributes by your circles such as friends, relatives, family members, subordinates etc because they know the characteristics features of your identity.

Recognition through Identity

The aspects of identity are so important that a class teacher can name a student merely on the basis of the characteristics exhibited by the student. For example, if a teacher is asked to name the student who is dominating in the class, she can immediately name the students who always exhibit authoritative behavior in the class. She can immediately recognize the students on the basis of aspects of identity shown by each student in the class. If she is asked to name the most popular guy or one who has many friends in the class or the one who is too mischievous in the class, she can give out the names of each student merely on the basis of these finer attributes of their personalities being a constant observer of their identities. This simply demonstrates how our behavior, attributes and preferences can shape our identity and leave a lasting impression on people’s minds.