Understanding our mojo in personal life and at work begins with reflecting on our identity. Easy as it may appear, this is perhaps the most difficult of the four elements in trying to figure out where your mojo lies.
More often than not, when asked about our identity, we are quick to respond with what we do, what our designation at work is.
The question is much deeper than we imagine it is. Dr Marshall Goldsmith, in his pioneering work on mojo, has demystified the concept by providing a simple framework to understand this.
According to him, our identity is determined by two dynamics complementing and competing with each other.
Ideal and real self
One vector is about the interplay between our past and our future. This is important because most of the time we cling to our past and even try to determine our future behaviour based on our past. This can be described as a tussle for many of us; since possibilities open up only when we struggle to choose between the comfort of the past self and the unknown promise of a future self.
The second vector deals with the tension between the image others have of us and our self-image. Using these two vectors, we get four boxes and each box represents a source of our identity.
All four boxes combine to influence our mojo. Hence, understanding all four boxes or categories is necessary to retain and enhance our mojo.
The matrix below tries to capture the above in a pictorial form:
The “remembered identity” is where self and past meet. We remember events in our life that helped form our sense of self. It is not very important whether these are glorious moments or events you would rather erase. What is worth noting is that we cannot forget these events. They left an impact – and when you write a profile of yourself, these moments invariably get reported. Nothing is wrong with harkening back to the past to understand our strengths and weaknesses.
However, to cling too tightly is where our problem may start.
Next, comes our “reflected identity.” This is positioned where our past and other people’s opinions meet. Other people we grew up with remember our past and perhaps even keep reminding us of them constantly. Remembering this has its value as feedback and its value never goes out of fashion. However, Dr Goldsmith reminds us that a healthy scepticism is called for here as well. Even if your reflected identity is accurate, it does not have to be predictive. We all can change!
The third aspect of our identify is “programmed identity.” This is the result of other people sending messages about who we are or will become in the future. Our programed identify has many sources. One can be the profession we are part of, or the culture we grew up or the company we work for. It can even be our circle of friends.
Finally, comes what we recognise as our “created identity.” This is where our self and future meets. This is the identity we decide to create for ourselves. This is the identity that is not controlled by our past or other people. This is also the source of change we would like to see that seeds our progress and success.
Check yourself
Goldsmith suggests that we review the various components of our identity. This will give us the insight we most need to determine what is relevant and what is not and what should influence our future and what should not. Creating positive mojo-enhancing experiences come from working on our “created identity.”
All of us have the potential to change more than we normally believe we can. Creating that identity and living to fulfil this may take a lot of hard work and warrant changing our habits where necessary.
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