I don’t remember exactly where I saw this, maybe it was in the Netflix bio thing on Bill Gates, or maybe it was in a random interview of him I watched on youtube, but somewhere out there on the internet I heard Bill Gates say that no matter what, even if he hates it, he finishes every book he starts because he knows if he let himself quit one book, he’d quit them all.

This really resonated with me, not only because I too finish every book I start, but also because when I look at myself, I see things that at first appear to be goals, but are really part of my identity.

For example, I see myself as a person who, no matter what, reads 52 books a year. Its nonnegotiable. I do it, every year, and completing it has certainly become part of my self-identity.

 

This got me thinking about other things that I’d like to become part of my self-identity. If I internalized things about my exercise and food choices and my spiritual/intellectual life not as goals, but as things that make me who I am, what more could I accomplish? For example, if instead of saying “I’d like to run 2000 miles a year” I said “I run 2000 miles a year” what would that do to my fitness, and my self-identity as a serious runner?

 

Digging in to this question is what I am going to experiment with this year. Its part of a plan I’ve been working on to build a revised and updated middle aged 3.0 version of Sean. I’m still toying with what form this will take, exactly, but I’ll use 2020 to experiment with broadening my personal identity to include things like “I eat a plant-based diet” and “I run 2000 miles a year” and “I study Hebrew”.

In the last couple of years, I’ve moved away from personal updates on this blog, but I might bring it back this year. I’m excited for 2020, for experimenting, for learning, and for building a better version of myself. Maybe I’ll document it here, maybe not. We’ll see.