BeingAlignedtotheVision

Because I wasn’t ready mentally nor emotionally to be who I said I wanted to become, I started to lose my confidence and my energy I became very depressed The problem was, I didn’t know how to align myself to my new vision I didn’t know how to go from being a “college student majoring in fashion” to being an “urban sophisticate living the life of an international fashion model.”

I got though it by finding and hiring a psychologist and doing that work; and there was something about the self-help movement that turned me on. My real transformation mostly came from reading a book called The Magic of Thinking Big by David Swartz and practicing every single directive in the book, every single day

I genuinely worked on myself intentionally and consistently, with one big goal in mind Thus, I expanded my mindset, and shifted my identity again this time with great intention from who I was at the time to becoming who I wanted to be: a young Black professional woman living life by her own wonderful design >

WhatisIdentityandHowDoYouShiftit?

I did this by expanding my mindset my view of what was possible for myself I elevated my vocabulary and my personal image My wardrobe and style changed from "college girl" to "chic model" to match my new international ideal

This work paid off in the most brilliant way Once I had shifted my identity, I was invited to join Why Not Model Management, one of the top agencies in Milan, Italy

In the language of Social Science, an identity consists of the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance and/or expressions that characterize a person or a group Because identity is strongly associated with role behavior, according to Sociologist Peter Burke, “identities tell us who we are and announce to others who we are ”

Your identity is the way you view and validate yourself. It’s how you think and it’s how you feel about what you think It’s how you see yourself in relation to other people and to the world around you. Your identity is shaped by the roles you play in life such as daughter, mother, student, teacher, coach, engineer, doctor, attorney, model, prime minister, president, nun, artist, manager, community leader, executive leader, and so forth

This quote from the Harvard Review is significant: “Individuals who regularly engage in identity shifting are more likely to experience career advancement and success. " Based on my own experience in working with professional women of all ages, I observe the fact that because women experience career interruptions at significantly higher instances than men do, at different stages, every woman must consider her next moves She must recognize the importance of being very intentional about shifting her identity in order to move forward graciously and with purpose

If you ’ ve never experienced a paradigm crash, then count your blessings. Most of us have experienced at least once in our life a transition that shifted our paradigm maybe even crashed it As a result, your identity suffered, but you were able to work your way through, to something new and perhaps even greater Or, maybe you crashed and never worked your way through it, and you ’ re still stuck. For those of us who have experienced troubling transitions, crashes devastating losses of loved ones, jobs and careers, friendships, and missed opportunities we know these setbacks can be incredibly painful and challenging to get through But you can do it >