This is a note to self, a journal of sorts. You might find it relevant too…
Identity is a powerful thing. This is something I've always known deep down in my mind, I've even written about it on this blog. Earlier this week I was reminded of the potency of identity by virtue of the work of Jonah Berger, a Marketing Professor and author of Magic Words. Jonah Berger details the findings of a study on the power of words, and how the tiniest, seemingly insignificant changes can have unexpectedly huge effects. For instance, a 2014 study shows that changing the word "help" to "helper" (i. e. adding two letters thus turning a verb into a noun) can increase the likelihood of an action taking place by a third. Another study showed that replacing "vote" with "voter" increased election turnout by 15%. This is huge!
My first thought when I learned about this study was "well I didn't see that coming". But then I had another thought. I spent some time interrogating why this tiny change could have such big effects, and it led me down the path of the power of identity. Going back to the study, “helping” is a doing phrase, a verb if you will. However, a "helper" is a being, a noun, the person that does the helping. This is a subtle but important distinction, because the act of helping may be done sparingly, or occasionally, or even just once, but a helper is someone who always helps, ergo, it is ingrained and inherent in the being’s identity.
This is the part of the blog where I ask and attempt to answer the question, what does this have to do with art and creativity? Well, I've learned on this creative journey I've been on that it is important to embody the identity we wish to actualise, and one way to do this is to project ourselves onto the noun form of the identity. In practical terms, writers write, singers sing, dancers dance, and painters paint. I've learned that I need to think of myself not just as someone who dabbles in the occasional writing, or sings from time to time, or dances when the mood strikes, or paints every couple of weeks. No. I need to think of myself as a writer, not just in the future when I have my works accepted for publication, or when I can earn a living from full-time writing, or in some arbitrary, ideal far-off scenario where the stars have aligned for me. I need to think of myself as a writer now, at this very moment. I'm a writer, and writing is what I do.
This practice of thinking in the noun form is self-reinforcing, as there’s evidence to suggest that it provides intrinsic benefits in driving us towards our goals. But that's not all. It also provides external reinforcement, because when we embody our aspirational identities, the people around us notice, and consequently begin to treat us like so. In practical terms, if I think of myself as a dancer, and I start attending regular dance rehearsals, then on the off chance that I feel like taking my foot off the pedal, I'm likely to be reminded of my identity as a dancer, i.e. a person who dances regularly, and when the conditions are right, this reminder might just suffice to keep me on track.
In summary, identity is a powerful thing. I often think of identity as the result of action. I think I need to do X countlessly before I become the person who does X. But research suggests that I’m not alone in this, and more importantly, that I have it backwards. It behoves me to think of myself as the person who does X, and if I persist at it, I might just become that which I think I am.
PS: Just a reminder that my latest record, One More Time is out now, everywhere. You can listen to it on several platforms. Please share it with a friend, share it with your social networks, and consider subscribing to the newsletter (below), my YouTube channel, or wherever else you listen to music.