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You open your mail, and there it is. Someone has opened an account in your name, with a credit line of $20,000.

Good for them.

Foreseeably, very bad for you.

If you are smart (and, of course, you would be), you take swift action to block them from actually using that line of credit that is in your name.

This is stolen identity, and it happens every day.

But it can happen in other ways, and you won’t get a notice in the mail. In fact, it could be happening to you right now. For some people, it happens for their whole lives, and they never even know it.

This kind of stolen identify happens when you have not taken the time to know who you truly are, what you value, and how you can best serve the world with your inherent strengths. And like the other kind of stolen identity, you stand to lose a lot. And in this case, others lose, also.

We are talking about your personal identity – who you are at the core.

The Value of Personal Identity

Knowing who you are and the strengths you can bring to the world is of great value to you in your relationships, in your vocation, and in your life. You can, quite literally, turn your strengths into income and live a life of great purpose and fulfillment. Consider the visionary and engineer-minded owners of a Texas company that is building 3-D printed houses made of concrete. Because they started down the path of their strengths and developed them, they are now working with NASA to develop the technology to build houses on the moon, using moon dust.

Your strengths may not catapult you to the moon, but they can certainly carry you farther than you can imagine.

The Victims of Stolen Identity

How does your true identity get stolen if it is innate to who you are?

You don’t notice the hints.

Your experience and the things you have enjoyed, even since childhood, provide hints. Maybe you always wanted to be the line leader in class. Or perhaps you enjoyed reading or building or crafting. Or maybe you were lovingly labeled the class clown because you could make everyone laugh at the drop of a hat. This was your identity providing clues. Most people don’t realize how valuable these clues are unless they go through an exercise of looking back. And then, the AHA! moments abound.

You don’t take the time to learn what it is.

There are assessments you can take to help you clearly identify your strengths and weaknesses, the work environments that allow you to do your best work, and how you best communicate. These help you hone-in on your identity very quickly and accurately. And they help prevent you from spending decades working in an area that is not your best calling.

You give it away.

It goes to say that if you don’t notice the hints or know who you are, you will essentially give your identity away to others. Instead of crafting your career path and living out your values, you will spend your life trying to conform to the plans and designs others have for you.

You lose it.

If you have experienced challenges in life, you may find that you have adapted so much to the situation that you don’t really know who you are. In the assessments, there are three charts. One of those shows how you will try to conform to your environment. If you are confident in your strengths, you will be relatively consistent to who you truly are. If not, you may be conforming so much to the environment that you lose yourself. You would also experience stress and could experience illness if you are not living true to your identity.

The Vision of True Identity

There are countless individuals who left their mark on history simply by living true to their strengths and values. We are the beneficiaries of their gifts. There were Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, George Washington Carver, Mother Theresa, Clara Barton, and Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few.

When you choose to bring your best strengths to all you do, you will leave an indelible mark on your part of the world.

Don’t worry about being like someone else. Focus on being your best “you.”

As Dr. Seuss said, “No one can be you-er than you,” and Oscar Wilde advised, “Be yourself because everyone else is taken.”

As the CEO of Strength Leader Development, Deb Ingino is a highly sought-after international executive mentor, coach, trainer, and speaker. Deb is well versed in global business operations and helps business leaders and their teams to discover and leverage their strengths, so they can create highly collaborative teams that deliver great results. With a refreshingly direct style, and using the Maxwell Method, Deb helps leaders and teams to deliver profitable results. Connect with Deb to learn more about her mentorship and coaching programs to equip you with advanced strategies to elevate your results