One of the biggest challenges we face in our evolutionary journey is handling our own identity or ego-space.
Identity is not a simple definition of who I am. It represents, instead, a matrix of attributes about oneself.
This matrix of attributes called the identity may be described thus:
(this is only one of many identity constructs through which individuals describe themselves)
Clearly, this is an extremely subjective construct that is attempting to scope or define an amorphous whole called “me”.
This subjectivity leads us to constantly assess, reassess, and “confirm” our descriptions of self, estimates of capacities, and assessment of possessions with what other people think (about us).
This dependence on other people for feedback leads to several difficulties – a sense of self based on what others think, mismatches between what one thinks and others think (leading to complexes), an estimation of one’s capabilities that is not validated by experience, etc.
In this framework there is no space for human possibility; there is no space for an evolutionary struggle;. There is instead a subtle slavery to what others think and an attempt – conscious or otherwise – to boost/ inflate these estimations of self through presentational methods.
Most identity-constructs, in the final analysis, are subjective, open to constant reassessment, leave us unsure, and keep us bounded.
They are, in short, disabling identities for the evolutionary adventurer.
There is, therefore, the need for new enabling ‘identity-constructs’ that help us in our evolutionary journey and create spaces for the evolutionary possibilities lying unmanifest within us.