Our work can sometimes seem like the biggest part of our identity, especially because so many of us spend so much of our time working. However, this can cause issues when it comes to understanding the other parts of our identity other than viewing ourselves solely as an employee. If you’re finding it difficult to focus on the other parts of your identity outside of work, prioritizing finding yourself outside of work can prove helpful.
Prioritize you 5-9 before and after your 9-5
Developing a routine for yourself before or after work can help you set time aside to prioritize good habits, hobbies, and connecting with others. Perhaps you schedule in certain days–such as Fridays for meeting up with friends–in order to keep yourself on track with paying attention to the other areas of your life besides work. By having set routines and maximizing this time each day, you stay accountable to yourself and your goal to learn more about yourself outside of work.
Maximizing your weekends
In addition to using the time before and after work to engage in the other aspects of your identity, weekends are also helpful to committing to the lifestyle that you’d like to lead. Since there is more time on weekends to explore your area and who you are, make plans with yourself to try new things, meet new people, and pay attention to your hobbies and family time.
Explore your interests
Such a large portion of your identity is the things you enjoy and do for fun–think about the things that you’re passionate about, or have been passionate about at other points in your life–and commit to making time for them. In addition, it’s great to explore new interests and hobbies, try new sports, hobbies, or attend events that are important to you. Through your exploration, you’ll find things that make you feel more than just an employee at your job.
Travel to new environments
Taking yourself out of your comfort zone and dropping into a different landscape can also help you gain new insight and perspective on yourself, your identity, and your current life circumstances. Not only will new environments teach you more about the world around you, but it may also help you to discover interests and abilities that you don’t normally think about in your everyday life. New environments can be big or small–a trip to a coffee shop to work in a new environment all the way up to leaving the country for a while.
Engage in visualization
Visualizing the lifestyle you’d like to lead also helps you gain more insight about the parts of your identity that you’d like to further develop. Doing a mental exercise in imagining all the possibilities for your life can help you break out of the norm and consider goals you’d like to work towards achieving, as well as picture yourself in different roles in your own life, broadening the possibilities for the different parts of your identity.
About Therapist Samantha Nolan, MA, LPC, ATR- Barnum Counseling