Become Unstoppable by Redefining Yourself ⚡️
3 practical tips for building habits rooted in identity, not motivation.
Last year, I started writing on Substack.
My goal? "I want to write something every week."
It worked… for a few months. Then life got busy, and I stopped.
Fast forward to today: I write multiple times every week without missing a beat.
What changed? I stopped trying to hit a one-time goal and decided to become a writer instead.
That small shift—from setting a goal to embracing an identity—changed everything.
🎯 Here’s the deal
One-time actions feel good in the moment (hello, dopamine hit), but identity-based actions build habits that last.
Why?
1️⃣ They redefine who you are.
Every time you act in alignment with an identity—like "I’m a writer" or "I’m a healthy person"—you reinforce it.
2️⃣ They snowball into consistency.
The goal isn’t just to “write a book” once. It’s to become a person who writes every day, even if it’s just 100 words.
3️⃣ They simplify decision-making.
When your identity is clear, the choices are too. A "healthy person" skips the donut without overthinking it because that’s just what they do.
🔥 So, how do you start?
1. Decide who you want to be 🦸♂️
What identity do you want to embody?
Maybe it’s becoming a writer, a coder, or a fitness enthusiast. The key is to frame it as an identity, not an action.
Instead of saying, "I want to write more," say, "I’m a writer."
2. Find small, daily actions that align with that identity 🤏
If you’re a writer, write 100 words a day.
If you’re a runner, jog around the block.
It’s not about the size of the action—it’s about proving to yourself that this is who you are.
3. Remind yourself: every action is a vote for the person you want to become 🚀
You don’t need to win every vote, but the more you cast, the stronger your identity becomes.
Miss a day? No problem—your identity isn’t fragile.
Just keep showing up.
💡 Imagine this
Imagine you want to become a reader.
You buy a book, set a goal to read 50 pages a day, and maybe stick with it for a week. Then, motivation fades, and the book collects dust. That’s an action-based approach.
Now, imagine this instead:
You decide to become a reader. You commit to reading just one page a day. It’s small, almost laughably so. But every day you do it, you reinforce the identity: "I’m a reader."
Soon, you’ll read more than one page—not because you have to, but because that’s who you are.
When I decided to become a writer, I started with just 15 minutes of writing daily.
It felt small, but it wasn’t about the output. It was about showing up for my new identity. Over time, 15 minutes became 30, then an hour.
Now, writing multiple times a week feels effortless.
The magic is in the compound effect of aligning actions with identity.
What starts small snowballs into massive change.
See you on Sunday ✌️
Alberto
P.S. What identity are YOU working on right now? 👀 Let me know in the comments—I’d love to hear about it!
I read about this somewhere else. Did you read Atomic habits?