Trust thyself

You have to determine for yourself who you are,
what makes you happy, what you're capable of doing and what you want to do.

You're in the identity trap if you let others determine what's right and wrong for you, You're in the identity trap when you try to be interested in something because it's expected of you, or when you try things that others say you should do, or when you try to live up to an image that the others say is the only legitimate valid image you're allowed to have. You're in the identity trap if you allow others to define labels and impose them upon you, such as going PTA meeting because that's what so-called good parents are supposed to do, or going to visit your parents every Sunday because a good child would never do less, or giving up your career because a so-called good wife puts her husband career first. You're in the identity trap if you feign an interest in ecology to prove your civic interest, or give to the poor to prove you aren't selfish or study delve subjects to appear to be intellectual. You're in the identity trap if you buy an expensive car to prove you're successful, or a small foreign car because your friends are anti-Detroit. or if you shave everyday to prove you're respectable, or let your hair grow long to prove you don't conform, or when you try to appear to having fun because everyone else is, or when you settle for a certain life because you've been told that's all you should expect in the world.


In any of these ways you allow someone to determine what you should think and be,
you deny your own self when you suppress desires that aren't considered legitimate.