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Identity Quotes

    “What you tell yourself on a daily basis is more powerful than you know.  Seemingly harmless jokes, over time, turn into seriously destructive beliefs.  Our thoughts become our words, our words become our beliefs, our beliefs become our actions, our actions become our habits, and our habits become our realities.  So if your favorite joke is that you couldn’t get a date if you demanded one at gunpoint, and you spend every Saturday night alone, perhaps you should come up with a new one-liner.” ~ Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

      “When we’re born, we have an instinctual understanding of some of the most important basics of life that includes, and goes way beyond, bending at our knees, instead of our lower backs, to pick a beer can up off the floor.  We’re born knowing how to trust our instincts, how to breathe deeply, how to eat only when we’re hungry, how to not care about what anyone thinks of our singing voices, dance moves, or hairdos, we know how to play, create, and love without holding back.  Then, as we grow and learn from the people around us, we replace many of these primal understandings with negative false beliefs, fear, shame, and self-doubt.  Then we wind up in emotional and physical pain.  Then we either numb our pain with drugs, sex, booze, TV, Cheetos, etc.  Or we settle for mediocrity.  OR we rise to the occasion, remember how truly mighty we are, and set out to relearn everything we knew at the beginning all over again.” ~ Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

        “You are perfect.  To think anything less is as pointless as a river thinking that it’s got too many curves or that it moves too slowly or that its rapids are too rapid.  Says who?  You’re on a journey with no defined beginning, middle or end.  There are no wrong twists and turns.  There is just being.  And your job is to be as you as you can be.  This is why you’re here.  To shy away from who you truly are would leave the world you-less.  You are the only you there is and ever will be.  I repeat, you are the only you there is and ever will be.  Do not deny the world its one and only chance to bask in  your brilliance.” ~ Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

          “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.” ~ Kurt Cobain

            “Having an identity that is specifically linked to your age or how you look would definitely set you up for pain because these things will change. If we have a broader sense of who we are, our identity never becomes threatened.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

              “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” ~ Steve Furtick

                “We don’t seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it’s purposeful. Ease makes less of an impression on us than struggle. We could have been ourselves without our delights, but not without the misfortunes that drive our search for meaning. ‘Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities,’ St. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, ‘for when I am weak, then I am strong.'” ~ Andrew Solomon, TED

                  “You need to take the traumas and make them part of who you’ve come to be, and you need to fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph, evincing a better self in response to things that hurt.” ~ Andrew Solomon, TED

                    “No one can be responsible for where or how we each begin.  No one has the freedom to do anything or everything, and all choices bring consequences. What we choose to do next, though, how to spend our resources or attention or effort, this is what defines us.” ~ Seth Godin

                      “An individual’s self-concept affects every aspect of human behavior. The ability to learn…The capacity to grow and change…The choice of friends, mates, and careers. It is no exaggeration to say that a strong positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.” ~ Dr. Joyce Brothers

                        “It is difficult to feel accomplished when you’re not accomplishing something that matters to you. Doing something ‘for your own good’ is rarely for your own good if it causes you to be less than who you really are.” ~ Ken Robinson, The Element