The Law of Chosen Identity: You Can't Be Authentic to an Identity You Never Chose
How to Build Your Creative Identity Through Conscious Influence Curation.
If you’re not choosing your influences
The world is choosing them for you.
And if the world is choosing them for you.
You’ll never feel truly authentic.
As someone looking to create something meaningful.
I know you’re tired of all the performance.
Every piece of content you see is someone who’s:
Real
Unique
Has it all figured out
But it feels less like they’re being authentic.
And more like they’re trying to prove they are.
It’s that feeling you get.
When someone won’t stop talking about how honest they are.
It just feels like they’re lying.
And that’s the problem.
It’s not just that other creators are faking it.
You start questioning yourself.
Do I look like that?
Is my content performative?
Is this even original or real, or am I just saying what everyone else is?
This is what happened to me.
I was making music and content because I wanted the success that I saw others had.
And it led me to doing the same thing everyone else was and eventually burning out and losing myself.
Today authenticity is necessary but it feels like it’s harder than ever to find it.
It’s even become hard to know what being authentic feels like.
We’re creatures of habit.
What we consume, our media, environment, social circle, daily habits.
It shapes who we are subconsciously, none of us can avoid it.
You’re being programmed 24/7.
And the truth is, if you’re not the one doing the programming.
Authenticity is impossible.
Here’s how to take control of your life and creative work in a way that makes authenticity inevitable.
The Agency and Awareness Issue.
You have to realize that what you already know and what you’re already doing is actually an impediment to your full potential. — Naval Ravikant
Here’s the truth that no one sees.
The world doesn’t have an authenticity problem.
The world has an agency problem.
It’s impossible to be yourself, if you never chose who you are.
It’s the reason you’re fed up with self improvement ‘be yourself’ content.
Because it’s not about you, it’s about how you can be more like them.
But what’s right for you is something you find for yourself.
Choosing who you are comes from two things.
Agency and awareness.
To really understand how to be authentic you have to understand how to choose who you are.
If you don’t you’ll always end up feeling like a copy of someone else.
Authenticity = Agency + Awareness
Identity.
Your identity or ego exists to keep you safe.
It’s like a sandbox for your consciousness to play in.
It says I’m this kind of person.
I’m from Toronto.
I make content and I love coffee.
I like listening to Clairo and Pierre Bourne.
That becomes who you are.
A collection of beliefs, habits, ideas, preferences, experiences.
But beneath it lies untapped potential.
The potential to adapt and become a higher version of yourself.
The version that’s sure of their choices.
The one who’s no longer swayed by the advice of so called experts who have all the answers but never lead you to your own.
The self and awareness.
In spiritual teachings like those of Ramana Maharshi, Mooji, J. Krishnamurti and others.
The goal is to transcend this sense of identity and find ’the self’.
The self is who you are before you are anything.
It’s the underlying awareness that is beneath all the ‘things’ you ‘are’.
So if you say ‘I’m from Toronto’
Ramana would say ‘Who is the one who knows they’re from Toronto?’
If you were to drop all the things you identify with what would be left is pure awareness.
Awareness helps you see what you chose and what was chosen for you.
The more awareness you have, the more agency you’re capable of.
They come hand in hand.
If you’re not aware that you only started making productivity content because it was trending.
You’ll never see doing it as something that’s causing you stress, burn out, and existential crisis.
But I don’t want you to abandon your identity.
I want you to use awareness to question and choose it consciously.
Because your authenticity isn't found in following your intuition, or trusting your gut, or listening to your inner voice.
It’s about learning what that even means through relentless awareness and questioning your own choices.
That’s where agency come in.
Identity before choice.
Your identity starts to form before you can read.
You unconsciously absorb your parents, friends, and cultures worldview.
It becomes the foundation of who you are.
Most people grow up in environments where:
Standing out
Thinking for yourself
Choosing your own path
Are labeled as dangerous, unreliable or strange.
We’re punished for speaking our minds, talking back, going against the grain.
This becomes our default.
It's why you second-guess every creative decision.
You're trying to express authenticity through someone else's value system.
One you accepted before you knew you had a choice to create your own.
You’re still unconsciously accepting it through:
The content you consume
The people you compare yourself to
The expectations you put on yourself but never question
Here’s how you escape the endless imposter syndrome that keeps you stuck, insecure and exhausted.
You create your own world view.
You curate your own influences.
You use your awareness and agency to pick what shapes who you are.
The Law of Chosen Identity
Authenticity is not discovered it’s chosen.
Awareness reveals what shaped you. Agency decides what you keep.
True authenticity doesn’t come from being who you are.
It comes from choosing who you are.
That’s where influence becomes your greatest tool.
Influence as output.
Everything that you learn is like your just accruing someone else’s DNA — Virgil Abloh
Your perspective is the most unique thing you have.
But if you don’t shape it intentionally you’ll always end up feeling like a fraud.
Those who use agency to shape themselves are the ones remembered as authentic.
People like Virgil, Tyler the Creator, Naval, Andre 3000.
They’re unique not because they simply reject the norm.
It’s because they choose their own way and the norm becomes irrelevant.
The Source Code System.
Your identity is your source code.
The foundation of everything you create.
You need to choose your own Source Code to be authentic.
You need a curated system of influences that actually represent what you value, believe, and feel.
I used to make content and music with the goal of ‘making it’.
So I repeated what I saw working for others.
If it worked for someone else, it would work for me.
But that’s not identity, that’s submission.
The content I made felt detached, like it lacked gravity.
I burned out trying to find my way.
That’s when I took a step back and found a system that worked for me.
The Living Source Library.
I designed this system for conscious authentic creation.
To create content, art, brand and develop ideas based in my own influences and inspirations.
As well as consciously consume rather than doom scrolling and being a slave to my environment.
I’m going to show you how to create your own, how it works, and how implement this system in your life and creative work.
If you want guidance and structure you can download my template for free just hit subscribe below and you’ll get your template in an email.
It comes with an AI prompt that creates your own Creative Clarity Blueprint with your:
Content pillars
Brand voice and aesthetics
Audience avatar
Brand positioning
Based on your own unique influences.
It also has a tutorial video that walks you through everything.
If not here’s how to create your own.
1. Awareness.
Write down a list based off these three questions.
What did you love from the ages of 5-17?
What are you obsessed with or love now?
Who are your biggest influences?
Add as many as you can think of that feel true to you.
Don’t add ones that you like because someone else does.
This is who you are
This is your creative source code.
It holds the keys to your creative identity.
It’s a map that leads to all your values, aesthetics, preferences, choices.
This is how you gain awareness of who you actually are without distractions.
You need to question it if you want to be authentic.
Take a look at what you do and what you enjoy and ask yourself why you like it.
Is it because you chose it or just because it’s all you know?
If you can’t find a reason for why you like something you probably don’t actually like it.
It’s just your default.
2. Connections.
Now you have a map for content, creative decisions, creating your own unique worldview.
Your library will reveals themes.
You’ll see just how much you like comedy over action movies.
Things like this jump out at you.
But as you look deeper you start to see more specifics.
I really like under dogs, what does that say about me?
If a theme keeps showing up that’s a reflection of who you are.
To make this more concrete and show you how valuable this system can be.
Over the next 7 days I want you to only consume things from your library.
Start to write down connections you notice between your different influences.
These connections are a map of your values and aesthetics.
As you get familiar with your list you’ll start to see how seemingly unrelated influences connect.
That’s where the real power comes from.
For example:
My reference earlier to Tyler the Creator and Naval.
Most people wouldn’t see a connection between the two but I see many.
Their refusal to be boxed in.
Their commitment to finding their own way.
Their ability to use influences from many things to create something new.
And you can see how that relates to what I’m talking about.
What I value, embody and want to be more like.
I share that in my writing and it’s authentic to who I am.
It comes straight from my Living Source Library.
Being able to make these connections separates what you create from the endless noise online.
Because originality and authenticity come from the intersections of your unique influences.
And that’s where synthesis becomes crucial.
3. Synthesis.
Originality comes from the spaces between existing ideas.
It comes from combining things in an unexpected way.
This is how you make it your own and create work that feels authentic.
By synthesizing ideas others don’t.
Your Living Source Library is a road map of your worldview.
No one but you has this.
It’s what you should be referencing for all your creative decisions.
Here’s something you can try so you see how powerful this tool can be:
Start your next creative project using 5 specific influences from your library.
Use these 5 influences to create the different elements of your project.
For example if your 5 influences were:
Ed, Edd and Eddy
Pulp Fiction
Dumb and Dumber
Rick Rubin
Nathan Fielder
The elements you use could be:
Colour pallet (The bold lines and washed out colours from Ed, Edd and Eddy)
Camera angle (The low angle trunk shot from Pulp Fiction )
Idea (A video inspired by Rick Rubin about embracing the creative process)
Theme or Mood (The deadpan humour from Nathan for You)
Mix and match ideas and inspirations as much as you can.
Use camera angles from Pulp Fiction and Dumb and Dumber.
Use colours from Ed, Edd and Eddy and Pulp Fiction.
Use creative ideas from Rick Rubin and comedic ideas from Nathan Fielder.
The more you combine different domains, ideas and techniques the more your own unique voice and worldview starts to emerge.
The Takeaway
This is how you start to develop and discover your own voice.
You use awareness and agency to find your true authenticity.
Don’t just be who you are, choose who you are.
This is how you escape the noise of all the recycled performative content.
Choose for yourself.
Trust yourself.
DM me and let me know what influences are in your Living Source Library.
The more we inspire each other the more we realize our full potential.
CONNECTION.
COMMUNITY.
‘Til next time.
— Edamame Dufflebag