Self Identity And Integrity
It's commonly accepted now that 'being ourselves' is one of the keys to personal happiness
. It is also a key to success both in and outside work.
In this article, I detail five reasons why I reckon it's more difficult to 'be yourself' than ever before. In my next article, I will explain how we can increase our self identity and develop our own uniqueness. Developing our understanding of the five factors will help us deal with the dilemma of 'why am I so miserable when I'm so economically comfortable'.
The reasons boil down to a mix of the pressures of career, and the pressures in life, which undermine our own self identity. Without being clear about our own identity, we lose the basis for being uniquely ourselves. Let's go then...
Reason 1: The collapse of work-life equilibrium
Summed up, it is no longer obvious for most working people where work ceases and home life starts. More importantly, work is increasingly dominating the lives of most people, and even part time jobs seem to take most of the week. There are lots of reasons for this. They include the following.
Firstly, the globalisation of work, which means needing to talk out of office times with people who work in other countries in other time zones. Secondly, the increasing pressure under our economic system to cut costs, which often entails working increased hours and for some the opposite work-life issue of being laid off. Thirdly technological innovation, which means that you don't leave your job when you leave the building.
In addition to piling great pressure on our personal lives, it also means more of our personal identity is connected with our job after all, it's where we concentrate most of our time and attention.
Reason 2: Loss of personal identity at work
In two important respects, our self identities have been eaten into by work developments in the past fifty years. First, we have seen the demise of the job for life, or career for life. Given that much of our own identity has traditionally come from work, this is not great news. You may recall your elders describing themselves as 'I'm an engineer', 'I work for Ford', 'I'm a teacher in this or that school', or 'I'm a accountant'. Whatever it was, their job was a key part of their personal identity, and we can't rely on this anymore. With this recession, millions of financial service and public sector workers are finding out this truth.
The other way that our identities have been compromised is less obvious, and perhaps unintentional. Fifty years ago, you were paid to arrive at work, and perform a day's effort. That was all. It didn't matter how you thought, or what you might say, unless you went completely over board! However, this is now different people are now paid to think, and businessesnow expect people to think in particular ways. Not only this, but moves by employers to adopt corporate values that all workers are expected to stick toraises the pressure on our personal identity. After all, if we focus more on corporate values, then we might lose sight of our own values.
Reason 3: Fragmentation of family & community
In 1960, the family model was clear. You were in a family, and family units stuck together, usually within neighbourhoods that also held together. Your child friends became your friends for life, and you'd often end up working next to them. It's not like this nowadays. Families are fragmented, parents often separated before youngsters grow up, family members move greater distances from each other, with less contact. Friends lose touch, often as people change jobs.
All of this means that, for many people, identity can no longer come from family or local area the way it used to. No wonder there is a deluge of people attempting to retrace their family roots not to mention websites reuniting people. These are reactions to loss of personal identity, at least partially.
Reason 4: The pressure to conform
The pressure to conform is obvious in a work context, as we've just seen. In addition, there are also greater pressures in society to conform, beginning with our teens. Fads and fashions plays to a natural desire most of us have to 'fit in' with others. So we wear identical clothes, buy similar music, wear the same jewellery, as those with whom we want to fit. In addition, as the impact of advertising has become more nuanced, we fail to notice its encroachment on our personal identity. Everything from the phone we use to our car, and even our friends, are all affected by this.
In addition to impacting on our identity, advertising contributes to one further threat to maintaining our personal identity and integrity.
Reason 5: The propaganda of instant happiness
Go on, show me an advert where it doesn't say in some way that, if you purchase the product, you'll be happier (or less unhappy). We live in a society that plays to instant satisfaction, where getting it now is the key to happiness. Western capitalism has largely been built on the promise of greater prosperity, payincreases, promotions, longer holidays, etc. Our society is built on the premise of 'when I get that, I'll be contented'. Whatever 'that' is. Then wepuzzle on why we aren't happy when we do get what we wanted.
Of course, it is obvious that contentment does come from inside us. But no one made money by accepting this wisdom, so our happiness becomes conditional on acquiring other things.
So there you have it. Five reasons why we are gradually losing touch with our personal identity. Without our own identity, we feel increasingly discontented. It should not surprise us to find that there are now more healers in Great Britain than there are doctors. After all, why would we expect our bodies to be healthy when our spirits are sagging?
The first step to health is to admit the problem, a bit like admitting 'I'm an alcoholic'. The second step is to understand some of the reasons why this happened, and I hope this article sheds a little light on this.
Mark Eyre
by: MarkEyre
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