place

How we think about "place "can quickly become our current paradigm. Where we are in life always tries to dictate who we are.

If you're climbing the corporate ladder to provide for your family, you become a rung. If you're in school preparing yourself for a knowledge career, you become a database. If you're a contractor fixing up homes because it's natural work, you become a hammer.

The problem with this thinking is a view of "loci", internal or external, that dictates your response to the world as either passive or active.

The problem with this thinking is in its passive nature. It tells us to stay bipartisan to the issues in culture, academia, and work.

It's an unhealthy invitation to exchange purpose for work.

The real problem is that we can't see past this place to envision how our work fits into the grand scheme and helps us achieve our goals.

The more deeply a thought or action is tied to your identity, the more difficult it is to change it.

James Clear, Atomic Habits

This identity change isn't easy. We are temporal creatures, so place matters, and it effects us deeply. But we have the power of conscious choice and habit to uproot our desire to be acted upon, and begin to act.