Self-Image: What Does It Really Mean?
I heard someone say once that people don’t rise to occasions as much as they fall to their level of competency. And from my experiences, I wholeheartedly agree, because when push comes to shove, and we find ourselves having to navigate the “fog of war” from time to time within whatever we’re doing, it’ll be our physical, intellectual, and/or emotional foundation that we’ll be forced to lean upon to navigate the unknown. So in moving forward, I think this idea of “fog of war” can be useful for helping us to re-contextualize our idea of the phrase self-image.
Fog obfuscates our vision. And when we can’t see where we’re going, we’re forced to wait until the fog lifts. Therefore, to talk about self-image without having a serious conversation about vision, is where I feel this fog comes from (i.e. cart before the horse). But because symptoms come second to systems—and our view of our current selves is in fact a symptom—means that our vision of our highest selves is the system. After all, you can’t plan for tomorrow without seeing something in your minds-eye first.
A popular talking point around the idea of self-image is authenticity. But again, because there are two ways of thinking about this (i.e. a fixed set of attributes vs. an alignment with a higher vision of oneself), is why many feel foggy, due to not knowing which side to embrace. After all, you can’t hit a target you’re not sighted in on. So when your vision of your highest self is a composite of the best role models you can see (system of thought/mindset), you’ll naturally reverse engineer your behavior and habits (symptom) to map to this vision you have. But when you really think about it, it’s not the latter group that’s stuck in a fog, it’s the former! And it’s because they’re asking themselves “if I’m being authentic like all these gurus have suggested I do, why haven’t I reached my version of the promised land like they have?” The funny thing, however, is that while both sides are as equally committed to their understanding of authenticity, the fixed group will continue to incur more headaches as a result of fighting for the right to stay the same (i.e. “keeping it real”), as opposed to the growth-group who wants to maintain their flexibility so that they don’t fall apart when future shifts take place in society. So as an artist, I’m much more interested in defining my intrinsic value by the vision I have of myself in the future, as opposed to allowing my relevancy to be solely dictated by my past successes, which time will always take a toll on.
Suggested Takeaways…
a) To define yourself by a set of attributes you think you need to embody to achieve and maintain your vision of success, is much more useful than that of a fixed mindset about your capabilities, as embedded in this idea is the knowledge that you can fall short of your goal for as long as it takes to reach if you don’t quit.
b) If the value of anything has more to do with what something does, as opposed to what it is, then what exactly is the value of having a fixed mindset if you’re already frustrated with your lot in life?
c) Every time you learn something about someone else (especially those you look up to), you earn a new lens by which to see the world through. So if we can only see the world as we are, and not as it truly is, then it means that it would be advantageous to us all to procure as many “lens’” as we can, so that it strengthens our prescription, and subsequent view of the world.