I walked into his basement, and was immediately awe struck.
“What in the world does this guy do for a living?”
A Bob Stoops signed football, a Roy Williams signed basketball, a picture of him with another famous coach. A wall’s worth of signings, and the stories to match.
I was a college senior, anticipating my next chapter, and I immediately found the page.
I wanted to pick up that identity.
And for the better part of 15 years, that’s exactly what I did.
Breaking into the sports world was a dream come true that I didn’t know I had.
And it wasn’t sports’ fault at all, it was mine, but it also became an intoxicating identity replacement chase.
I’d “humbly” tell you otherwise that it was “just a job” but when someone asked about it, inside my pride and ego would say “damn right.”
I wish I could say that identity disorder was fully in the past as new stories in my career are being written, but it’s still a battle.
Are you a teacher? No, you teach.
Are you a doctor? No, you care.
Are you a CEO? No, you lead.
Your job does not equal your identity.
Learn from my mistakes, if you look to it to give you worth, identity, and value, it won’t.
It was never intended to. The bedrock of your identity is much deeper than that.
Keep going.
