Who are you without your job title?

When we get too hung up on job titles and what we are known as, we often stop thinking about what we are known for. 

Most of our lives we are either chasing something or building something substantial (or at least trying to); only to lose ourselves in the process. It’s not that everybody loses every inch of their personal beings, but at some point we all experience it at different intensities and durations. The point is, till when? And when does it stop to matter - when you succeed, or when you fail?

When we land the job that we absolutely love, we immerse ourselves in it with utmost care and fervour. We start romanticising everything about it until more characters and episodes enter this rom-com world. This article is not to frighten anyone who’s hoping to land their dream job, or who’s currently living in one. In fact, it simply serves as a pair of 3D glasses, trying to tell you - psst..there’s more! 

Life will pass you by while you are busy getting things “just right”, or the ”right away” at work. It’s not that you should avoid work responsibilities. It’s about defining boundaries before you let the work be your definition.

Many people learn this the hard way, but it doesn’t have to be the only way. Give your best shot, fall in love with your work, make it a priority. There’s no problem with that. Just don’t be so blindly in love that you do not see the world around it. The workland may not stay the way it has always been. So you got to remember - your job title is just a role you play. It is not the person you are. Imagine you’re the main character of your corporate life. Of course there’ll be new faces, some will make the workland easy to ride and some will try to keep cutting your restraints, waiting for you to fall. The idea is to not leave your main-character energy and build a life that values things beyond your corporate “identity” - one of the many identities you hold.

Let’s see how liberated you are in your identity - 

Who are you once you are back home or on a Sunday evening?
Who are you when you introduce yourself without mentioning what work you do?
Who are you if tomorrow your designation vanishes?

These questions are intended to give you a little discomfort now, so that life doesn’t give it to you the hard way.

I am happy to share with you a 3-part reflective lens that will give you a structure to figure it out for yourself.

1. What do you value outside performance? - Curiosity/ Creativity/ Compassion/ Adventure? 
2. What gives you meaning that isn’t measurable? - Conversations/ Health/ Relationships/ Learning?
3. Who notices you beyond your productivity? - Family/ Friends/ Your own quiet mind?

Some of the most defining parts of you will never appear in a dashboard. Your partner/parent/close friend will notice your exhaustion before your achievement. How much are you nurturing these aspects of your life? If not the corporate life itself, things beyond that will have an impact on our job titles & positions.

Career breaks, Sabbaticals, Parenthood, Caregiving, Layoffs, Retirement, to each their own. If your identity cannot survive a pause, was it ever fully yours?

If you would like to really analyse all this for yourself and transform the way things are, make yourself an “Identity Portfolio”. Much like a financial investments portfolio, this will prevent you from investing all of your energy into one asset - your job.

Evaluate yourself for:

- Professional self
- Creative self
- Relational self
- Curious self
- Resting self

Feel free to print the below framework of Identity Portfolio by Little More to Workland. Check how much % you’re spending on each of these identities or rate them; and figure which one of the non-professional side of it you’d like to focus on this month. Continue doing this every month till you’ve found yourself above & beyond your corporate job title. 

As a closing note, I’d like to urge you to take the above analysis for yourself. .