If We Set Aside The Statue Of The Perfect Self, We Might Be Able To See Identity As A Dynamic Process

If we set aside the statue of the perfect self, we might be able to see identity as a dynamic process rather than a static object. The chiseling, the carving out through our decisions, is what defines who we are. We are sculptors, finding ourselves in the evolution of choosing, not merely in the results of choice. When we change our thinking to embrace a more fluid process, choice will become no longer a force of destruction, an effort to break down what we don't want to be, but an ongoing, liberating act of creation. The writer Flannery O'Connor reportedly said, "I write to discover what I know." Perhaps we can take a page from her book and say, "I choose to discover who I am."

Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing