B ME Bites 8: Why Do You Do What You Do? - Part 6

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This week’s B ME Bites Trivia Question:

Welcome to edition #8 of B ME Bites! This week is the 6th and final part of the series titled “Why Do You Do What You Do?” There’s a reason why you do everything you do, whether it adds to your life or detracts from it, and this week’s topic is about that which has the most impact on the way you behave - your identity!

For this edition, you can choose your own adventure to proceed!:

🎙️ If you prefer to listen, you can listen on your preferred platform.

📺 If you prefer to watch, you can watch on YouTube:

If you prefer to read, proceed from here! 👇

Featured Topic: Is your identity helping or hindering you?

What is identity and why is it important? Your identity is what you believe about yourself to be true. It’s the way that you perceive yourself. It’s the labels that you give to yourself. In simpler terms, it’s the words that you put after the words, “I am”. Sometimes this is done consciously. However, more often than not, this is done subconsciously and it’s your subconscious identity that can really derail you.

Tony Robbins said, “The strongest force in the human personality is the need to stay consistent with how we define ourselves.” In other words, if you believe something about yourself to be true, you will behave in a way congruent with how you see yourself to be. This is great when what you consciously believe about yourself matches up with what you subconsciously believe. However, when those identities don’t match up, your knights will revolt and you will self sabotage to bring yourself back into alignment with what you subconsciously believe. (If you missed the edition about what drives 95% of your behaviour, you can catch up on it in Part 3 here)

For instance, let’s say that you smoke cigarettes, however, you want to quit because you want to improve your health. If subconsciously you continue to identify as a smoker, you will find it very difficult to quit smoking, if you succeed at all. You might even quit smoking for a while, but because you continue to subconsciously identify as a smoker, you will eventually start smoking again. However, if you start to subconsciously identify as a non-smoker or as a healthy person, you will have a lot more success in quitting smoking, because your behaviour will align with how you now identify yourself.

So how can you ensure that your identity is helping you and not hindering you? It’s not necessarily about changing your identity, but more about expanding your identity. How do you do that? By doing something congruent with who you have decided to become. If you have a goal that you’re trying to achieve and you haven’t succeeded yet, ask yourself who you need to be to achieve that goal. Then ask yourself what that person would do to achieve that same goal. Whatever that is, even if it’s unfamiliar and outside of your comfort zone, do it. Because what happens when you continue to push outside of your comfort zone? Your comfort zone expands and so does your identity! (If you missed the edition about self sabotage and comfort zones, you can check it out in Part 4 here and make sure to watch the 6 minute video that demonstrates what happens when you push out of your comfort zone)

There’s a reason why you do everything you do. Why do you do what you do? Is your identity helping or hindering you?

Reader Spotlight

Thank you to Jojo who left the following review after reading “Healthy! Beautiful Inside & Out ”:

You can find a link to this book here.

Weekly Challenge

Your mission for this week, if you choose to accept it, is to do the following:

a) Think about a goal that you set for yourself that you haven’t succeeded in achieving yet, and ask yourself who you need to be to achieve that goal.

b) Then ask yourself what that person would do to achieve that same goal.

c) Now go do it 🙂 

If you need some help, feel free to hit reply - let’s help you get started if you’re stuck!

B ME Bites is deliberately sent on a Friday morning (Aussie time) so that where ever you are in the world, you have the weekend to give yourself the gift of implementing a small change towards a better you. What will that small change be? Is there a change that you have been trying to make and haven’t yet succeeded? Give it another go, applying the above - you can do it!

Resource Roundup

There’s a great episode on the Tony Robbins Podcast about expanding your identity. You can watch it on YouTube here:

If you would rather listen to it on your podcast platform, here’s the link for you:

Below is a resource list that has been created with you in mind. Whenever something new that could be helpful is discovered, it’s added to the list, so check it out from time to time. If you’re strapped for time, once you open the page below, scroll down to the Resource List section and click on the “Health Tools” link for a list of items that could be helpful on your path to a better you.

The answer to this week’s trivia question is:

Thanks for reading and the hope is that you found something helpful inside this issue. If you did, remember to share it with others whom could also find it helpful, using this link: https://bmebites.beehiiv.com

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Hit reply and answer either 1,2 or 3, and, if the answer is 2 or 3, give the deets on what would make it a 1 for you!:

1. Loved it!

2. It was OK

3. Meh!

If you have an inspiring story, or a helpful tip or strategy to share, or if there is something specific you would like covered, please fill out the form below so that it can be shared with the community. Please note that this is a subscriber survey, so you may have to subscribe first (hint, hint…… 😉) : https://bmebites.beehiiv.com/forms/8d0dfdd1-4290-4e40-bff9-1f61b812c661

Until next week, keep taking one S.T.E.P.S step at a time! (If you missed the issue explaining The S.T.E.P.S Formula, you can check that out here)

Warm regards,

Shari Ware Chief Encouragement Officer at B ME Bites

PS - Here’s a little Friday funny for you!