The Identity Code: The 8 Essential Questions for Finding Your Purpose And Place in the World - Hardcover

Ackerman, Laurence D.

 
9781400064175: The Identity Code: The 8 Essential Questions for Finding Your Purpose And Place in the World
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1400064171 ISBN 13: 9781400064175
Verlag: Random House Inc, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Expanding on the earlier work Identity Is Destiny, a provocative study explores eight important questions that each individual must answer to uncover his or her true identity, including "What Makes Me Special?," "Is There a Pattern to My Life?," and "Where Am I Going?" 30,000 first printing.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Larry Ackerman is a leading authority on organizational and personal identity. As group director for the international identity- and brand-consulting firm Siegel & Gale, Ackerman is widely regarded as the pioneer in the field of identity-based management. His many and diverse clients include Alcoa, Maytag, Fidelity Investments, the Dow Chemical Company, Ernst & Young, Norsk Hydro, Interbrew, and Boise Cascade. His first book, Identity Is Destiny, set forth a revolutionary view of the nature of identity and its fundamental impact on organizational and leadership development. He lives in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife and son. Contact the author at www.theidentitycode.com.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

THE MYTH OF PERSONAL FREEDOM

AND THE MEANING OF IDENTITY

LIFE HAS ORDER

The idea that you can be whatever you want to be in life is a myth that tortures people needlessly. It forces you to follow false trails such as money, fame, or family approval, or to stay the course out of sheer desperation. It eats at the very core of your being. Why? Because it lacks integrity; it simply isn't true.

Why we succeed or fail on the path we choose in life, and why we feel basically good or bad about the choices we make along the way, isn't a random event. You can't assign credit or blame to how you were raised. Or chalk it up to the luck of the draw. Or to being in the right place at the right time. Or to any other explanation that avoids the truth.

From the time we are born, we are told by loving parents, devoted teachers, well-meaning friends, and larger-than-life public figures and celebrities that we can be anything we want to be. We can be that international airline pilot, that wealthy business entrepreneur, that Nobel Prize-winning scientist, maybe even that first female president, or other head of state, if we aim high, work hard, and stay the course.

The promise of personal freedom is very seductive. Boosting our egos, it fires our imaginations and fills us with hope, confidence, and drive. We come to believe we are free to make choices about our lives that are wide open, unrestricted by anything except, perhaps, our responsibility at some point to care for others--our families, or aging parents, for instance.

From an early age, we swallow this elixir eagerly. Without thinking, we let it coat our way of life. Years later, as we start to consider vocations and careers, we follow this now deep-seated dream in earnest, the dream that the only order life has is the order we give it.

Lying in bed late at night, or as you sit on an airplane as a young executive, or contemplate alternatives for your college major, graduate work, or post-high school life, you look out into the world and ask the question, What do I want to do? I am free. Where do I want to go? The possibilities seem endless. You are drunk with possibilities. They can be overwhelming.

For all the promise they hold, these questions can gnaw at you. Especially when the answers aren't obvious. Or when the answer that seems obvious at first doesn't necessarily make you feel good. It is then, in these sobering moments, that freedom loses some of its seductive charm. It is under these circumstances that you wake up to your desire for some frame of reference you can call upon to help you decide what to do--what is right to do, for you.

In the midst of this budding turmoil, some people continue to hold fast to their dream. They decide, for instance, that being wealthy is the most important thing, so they doggedly pursue jobs in investment banking or as business financiers. Others feel the obligation to walk in their father's or mother's footsteps, and so steadfastly follow the path their lineage suggests. Still others have invested years in a particular field--politics, the arts, science, journalism, sales, accounting, carpentry--and can't imagine walking away from it after so long. All those years, you think; it's too late to change.

Despite how outwardly successful they may be, the question remains: Are these people happy? It is the only question that matters. By "happy" I do not mean you are always cheerful, or pleasant, or even nice. I mean that you are at peace with yourself. You understand your unique capacities and live according to them. You are happy being who you are among others in the world.

If they are truly fortunate, some people really will be happy, down to the very roots of their souls. Others, however, whether they wind up rich or poor, will insist they are happy but know better. For them, something is missing; something grates at them, inside. But they are afraid to admit it, to themselves as well as to others.



Unbridled freedom weighs you down. Stress takes hold: I need to make a decision about my life, but can't. Guilt surfaces: I wonder what's wrong with me, why I can't figure out what to do. Depression filters into your bones: I am lost. I am in pain. Despair grips your heart: I don't know where I'm going; I must be a failure.

The myth of personal freedom--the idea that you are at liberty to pick whatever path in life you want--is the unspoken agony of the modern person. It ignores the fact that life has order, and that that order bears heavily upon your choices--on what makes sense to do with the time you have. The good news is that although you can't be anything you want to be, you have more potential than you know.

The order I am speaking about is contained in a code, the identity code. Much like our biological, genetic code, our identity code is born into each of us, providing a complete map of how we, as human beings, are designed to function--of how we are supposed to live--when we are living according to who we are. Within the framework your identity provides, life's seeming boundaries melt away. Genuine freedom is yours.

By "identity" I mean the unique characteristics that, in combination with one another, define your potential for creating value in this world; that is, for making a contribution that springs naturally from the core of your being and touches the lives of others in positive ways.

Living according to your identity doesn't happen automatically. How our lives unfold isn't predetermined. Identity isn't a form of fatalism, where no matter what you do your life is destined to turn out a certain way. It is the opposite. It is up to each of us to learn who we are, and then to act upon this knowledge in ways that enable us to realize our potential. We are responsible for what happens to us in life. We are responsible for making identity our framework for living.



Our identity code isn't obvious. We can't see it. Our physical senses are inadequate when it comes to comprehending it. But it is there, waiting to be discovered and embraced.

Crack your identity code and the contours of your life will shift. You will not only come out stronger, you will come out larger. Larger in heart, larger in influence, larger in your capacity to love and be loved.

You will find the right friends. You will marry smarter. You will discover the right line of work or field of study, and the place to practice it. You will parent better. You will honor the right heroes and worship the right gods. You may even live longer. You will understand the why of your own life.

THE EIGHT QUESTIONS

The identity code is found in the answers to eight questions. These questions are:

Who am I?

What makes me special?

Is there a pattern to my life?

Where am I going?

What is my gift?

Who can I trust?

What is my message?

Will my life be rich?

At first glance, these questions may appear similar to any number of other life-shaping questions people ask themselves in the course of their lives. Questions like Why am I here? Or, What is my purpose? But these eight questions aren't arbitrary. They come from one source: a series of eight natural laws--the Laws of Identity--which are part of the very constitution of nature and govern our lives like clockwork.

Natural laws aren't a new phenomenon. They've been with us for aeons. Our instinct for self-preservation and innate love of our offspring, for instance, are also natural laws that shape...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Random House Inc
Erscheinungsdatum
2005
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1400064171
ISBN 13 
9781400064175
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
191
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9781520374826: The Identity Code: The 8 Essential Questions for Finding Your Purpose and Place in the World

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  1520374828 ISBN 13:  9781520374826
Verlag: Independently published, 2017
Softcover