The Real You Versus the Role You

Hello, everyone! I wanted to dive deeper into the concept of the real you versus the role you as an encouragement.

Firstly, the role you deals with your job performance (i.e. salesperson, father, mother, sister, coach, etc.). Oftentimes, people use their profession as a way of boosting their self-worth and putting all their energy into it (workaholics). When this happens, failure will often shatter this person’s entire identity, leaving them feeling hopeless and unskilled.

As for the real you, it deals with your self-worth and identity. As Christians, it is especially important to remember our self-worth because it is given by Christ, and to demean ourselves is to reject God’s creation. Genesis 1:27 NIV says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” While we often see the imperfections in ourselves, we must still recognize that we are made in God’s image, and that is our identity. No job, person, or occupation can determine our worth like our Creator can.

In the world of entrepreneurship, failure is encouraged because it is the best way for someone to learn. Well, you may then ask, how do you fail and still learn? The key is to draw a strong line between the real you and the role you. The real you will never change because our Creator will never change. He calls us His children, and He never goes back on His word. What we must first realize is our identity will never change, no matter how many times we fail. By changing our mindset, it makes failure a learning opportunity rather than humiliating. The role you may fall flat many times, but our Creator will always help you up, and having this perspective about sales will make you so much more successful.