Attachment to IT

We lost. And it burns, hard. I hate losing. A lot. Along with that loss, comes my mental game tape review in all its destructiveness. As I reflect, I find myself coming up with the best alternative actions to a new, more desirable ending, that are now so obvious. Commence the mental self-abuse.

It’s hard to detach from our things sometimes. For me it’s because I have the tendency to correlate “the thing” with my identity. The lows take parts of me away with them and the wins are supposed to happen because I am, “the thing”, I should win.

If our identity is entwined in “the thing,” whether that is being a successful athlete, making money, writing the best story, or being famous, our identity comes under attack every time we engage in “the thing”. That can be dangerous as options to waiver morally become increasingly intriguing as we risk losing our identity in times of pressure, performance and peril, because we’re human and we desire to keep our identity at all costs.

Our identity needs to be anchored in our inner truth in order for us to sustain and flourish our well-being. Inner truth (IT) is that thing you know exists because it just does; God, the universe, the golden rule, spirituality, whatever that is for you. When we attach our identity to IT we attach ourselves to an identity that is unwavering, unchanging and indispensable.

As I continue to detach more with the things that I do and align more with my IT, I am detached from the result in a great way. Playing in crunch time becomes exhilarating, performing the day-to-day becomes enjoyable, losses become opportunities to level up and the wins are sweeter.

I am not my sport, my job, my wealth, or my relationships. The sports, jobs, wealth and relationships I participate in are a reflection of me and my IT.