{"id":490,"date":"2019-07-14T23:40:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T03:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=490"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:46:44","slug":"you-are-not-your-job-identity-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/you-are-not-your-job-identity-career\/","title":{"rendered":"You Are NOT Your JOB: Identity and Career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you feel your identity is your job? Is it a huge part of your identity? Learn how to get over this trap so you can find your passions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-simplify-your-life\/\">live simply<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/professional\/work\/career\/career-development-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shortform&#8217;s guide to career development<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-job-identity-trap\">The Job-Identity Trap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people expect a career to be more fulfilling than a job. They believe it\u2019s the ticket to a meaningful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, having a career often sidetracks you from that goal. The reason is that <strong>people invest in their careers to the point of assuming an identity and social status based on their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/job-titles\/\">job title<\/a><\/strong>.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our cultural norms aid and abet this tendency. One of the first things people ask when getting acquainted is, \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d This seems innocuous, but the implied question is, \u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d \u2014 and you know you\u2019ll be judged (assigned a social status) based on your occupation.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Once you believe your career is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-genius\/\">who you are<\/a>, it\u2019s difficult to give up that identity even if you come to hate your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(A better way to answer the \u201cwhat do you do\u201d question is to reply with what you\u2019re passionate about. For instance, \u201cI\u2019m passionate about cooking; what are you passionate about?\u201d It leads to more interesting conversations than the typical answer along the lines of \u201cI\u2019m a director of operations.\u201d)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is, you\u2019re far more than your career; you have passions that you can pursue for a meaningful life. You are NOT your job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-anchor-of-identity\"><strong>The Anchor of Identity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your occupation is an anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/whats-holding-you-back\/\">holding you back<\/a> when you believe it defines who you are as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When your job or career becomes your identity, it\u2019s difficult to do anything else<\/strong>. That\u2019s why many people stay in the same industry when they change jobs. It\u2019s hard to realize you are much more than your vocation and\/or your stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joshua and Ryan worked to come up with more meaningful identities than their corporate titles. They had to publicly identify themselves with new labels, such as mentor, leader, contributor, and minimalist. These identities are transferable to whatever they do, unlike their career identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you remove the anchor of identity, you can remove other anchors. You are NOT your job!<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you feel your identity is your job? Is it a huge part of your identity? Learn how to get over this trap so you can find your passions and live simply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-minimalism","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You Are NOT Your JOB: Identity and Career - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is your job a huge part of your identity? 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