I've been working to rebuild my identity over the past few weeks and and there are some very real challenges in achieving such a rebuild. The process is so abstract, confusing and lacks a clear process: there is no playbook on how you rebuild an identity!
I think about that within the context of me here in Lisbon, in this new city, where I can decide who I want to be next, but it's also a big question: “Who are you?” and “Who do you want to be next?” There’s not a single, definitive answer.
So to gain some clarity about identity and transformation I reflected on Hollywood, acting, and James Bond... as a metaphor to better understand this process and from that metaphor, abstracted a three layered framework on identity. Hopefully, using James Bond is also a fun and familiar touch point for us too.
Explanation
In the first layer of identity, there’s the character of James Bond. We see this most clearly in the many novels and the many movies that he's been featured in. We’ve seen how this character has evolved and we know his escapades across many decades and generations.
We know this identity in the aggregate, through all of these stories: an identity with recognizable consistency and unchangability. This is the first and highest level: Character.