The never-ending experiment… (pt 2)
Let's get straight to it: are you on the path of life or the path of destruction?
The path you’re on is completely determined by the foundation in which your identity is rooted. The information we consume from our surroundings shapes our beliefs, values, and understanding of who we are. The stability of our identity and the direction of our lives depend entirely on the integrity of this foundation. If the foundation is flawed, our perception of reality and our decisions will be flawed as well.
When examining identity, there are two distinct parts: the surface identity and the core identity. The surface is external. It includes your physical appearance, social roles, titles, labels, and outward behavior. It’s what the world sees and interacts with. The core identity is internal. It is your deepest self—your mind, emotions, values, and that quiet inner space where you crave a sense of meaning and purpose. As we will uncover later, this internal core actually holds a deeper design, but no matter your life stage or age, it’s at your core that “who you are” is truly found.
Because your core identity guides your daily decisions, your foundation matters! Your core is either rooted in a foundation that is ever-changing, or one that is unchanging.
An identity rooted in an ever-changing foundation—the world— stands on shaky ground. The world around us is a constant stream of shifting information, trends, algorithms, and opinions. When your core is shaped by this environment, it is usually defined by temporary things like a job title, a relationship status, money, or even your fluctuating feelings. Because these external factors are constantly shifting, your identity changes right along with them, providing only temporary fulfillment.
There’s a Disney-Pixar movie named Soul that perfectly illustrates this. The main character, Joe Gardner, is obsessed with landing his big break as a jazz musician. He believes his "spark"—his ultimate reason for living—is music.
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with functioning in a gift that comes naturally to you. We are all born with natural abilities and passions that we should absolutely develop and enjoy! The mistake Joe made wasn't his passion for music; it was elevating his dream of being a jazz musician to a place of such high priority that it consumed his life.
We see this same messaging all over our culture today. We are constantly told that because we love to do something, there must be an ultimate purpose in it, or if we like a certain passion, we can find true fulfillment in it—and this may be true, however, once again, the foundation you stand on matters!
When Joe finally gets the gig of his dreams and plays his heart out in front of a crowd, he walks out of the club and reality sets in. He asks, "What happens next?" and the jazz legend says, “We come back tomorrow night and we do it all over again.” Sensing that something was on his mind, she asked him what was wrong and he told her that he’s been waiting on this day for his entire life and thought he’d feel different. She begins to tell him a story about a fish swimming up to an older fish saying, "I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean." The old fish replies, "The ocean? You’re in it right now." The young fish says, "This? This is just water. I want the ocean!"
To put it plainly: the young fish was swimming in the very thing it was searching for, but it couldn't recognize it because it was looking for something grander.
We do the exact same thing when we rely on external factors to give us satisfaction for our existence. We are surrounded by life, beauty, and opportunities every day, but we dismiss them because we are consumed by this idea of what we think should complete us.
The movie also touches on a space called "the zone"—that place you get into when you are completely immersed in your talent or hobby. But it warns that when that focus becomes an unhealthy obsession, it takes over your life. Like, it describes people who become completely obsessed with their anxieties, careers, or achievements and turn into "lost souls,” which were monstrous, gray creatures wandering mindlessly in a dark space, completely disconnected from reality. On the inside of these creatures was the actual individual, caught in a trance, repeating negative thoughts, perceptions, and beliefs about themselves that were handed down by those close to them—from family and friends to the expectations of society.
When we rely on a shaky foundation to define who we are, it brings us to a deeper issue that needs exploring. If you ground yourself on this shifting ground, what you think of yourself, and even how you identify yourself, is always changing. It becomes impossible to ever feel complete or to even rest. You can achieve all the success, wealth, and external validation the world has to offer, but it will never make you internally secure. This worldly foundation is plastered with illusions. Its sole purpose is to keep you distracted, trapped in unhealthy, repetitive cycles, leading to a path of destruction. We confuse these temporary highs with our deepest need for stability and peace.
Your core identity shouldn't be rooted in a foundation that is unstable. It needs to be rooted in a solid, unshakable foundation—one that gives real stability and peace, remaining the same regardless of what’s happening in a chaotic world. To truly understand this unchanging foundation, we have to look past the surface of what we can see.
Morgan