Read an extract from Make You Happen by Jordanna Levin!

Jordanna Levin is the bestselling author of Make It Happen, Higher Love and the host of three successful podcasts. With a background in journalism, she has built a reputation for taking ‘big’ topics and making them relatable, digestible and downright entertaining. Through her wit, warmth and street-smart practicality, she invites readers to get curious about the things that light them up. Jordanna believes that ‘aha’ moments are contagious and self-awareness is our greatest superpower. She currently spends her time writing from the sunny coastal town of Byron Bay.

Jordanna’s new book is called Make You Happen: Manifest Your Best Self, and today you can read an extract from it on identity and self-awareness. Read on!

Jordanna Levin

Rethink identity to become more self-aware

Have you ever had an identity crisis? I’ve had several. They’re usually instigated by a wardrobe meltdown, a relationship ending, a ‘fat’ day or a career pivot. In fact, what I have learned on the road to becoming more self-aware is that you only ever have a crisis of identity when you are identifying yourself by external means.

Whether we care to admit it or not, we are all judgemental! We encounter a fellow human and even before words and gestures have been exchanged, we are instantly forming a picture and opinion of who this person is. We start out basic by assuming someone’s gender, which before we were all better informed about the fluidity of gender was a safe bet. We then move on to physical appearances, which can incorporate so many inaccurate assumptions. A person’s race, which we cannot be so ignorant to decide based on the colour of someone’s skin. We notice their body type (usually in comparison to our own), which then leads us to an assumption of their exercise routine and diet choices, with no actual proof to back up our wildly unfounded judgements. We make observations about what they’re wearing, and their choice of clothing leads us to assume certain aspects of their personality, social standing or financial earning bracket. Then, perhaps, we start to learn more about them. Their personality traits and interests begin to emerge and from here we can form what we feel, as an outsider, is a complete representation of this person. But is it? No friends, it’s not.

Let me ask you, do you think it would be accurate for someone to identify you by any of the aforementioned attributes? ‘HELL NO!’ I fiercely typed onto this page while sitting in a hipster cafe half dressed for a morning of exercise (that I had no intention of doing) and half dressed as a Peruvian Sherpa wrapped up in a patchwork blanket I found in the boot of the car. If someone were to make assumptions on this morning’s attire, I might be branded as a sporty type (which I’m not) who just got back from her travels to Machu Picchu (which I didn’t) and has zero sense of style or proficient laundry liquid (which isn’t entirely false).

As ridiculous as it sounds when put into context, the truth is we all do it. I’ve been identifying myself by my own fashion choices, work successes and the suburb that I live in for as long as I can remember – and that was consciously. Subconsciously, the list of identifiers goes much deeper. My personal journey with identity has been a long and treacherous road but it made me realise a very simple truth: all of these things are an expression of our identity, not who we are intrinsically.

Being able to separate the two enabled me to cultivate my inner world to a standard I wished to be identified with. It’s also imperative to be aware that your identity is not fixed; it’s forever changing. With every trauma, every life-altering conversation, every success, every time the moon changes phase, fragments of who we are morph and transform. Essentially, our identity is our connection to self, and self-awareness shows us that the self is in a constant state of flux.

My hope with Make You Happen is that you leave with a beautiful blueprint of who you are and that you keep adding to it (or taking away) as you grow and mature throughout your life.

—This is an edited extract from Make You Happen by Jordanna Levin (Affirm Press), out 26 April.

Make You Happen

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Jordanna Levin

For decades you’ve been sold spiritual solutions and personal development that relies on mastering techniques and habits in order to ‘fix’ yourself. But what if the tools you’ve been searching for have been there inside you all along?

Following Jordanna’s very funny and sometimes painfully honest personal journey of self-discovery in the bestselling Make It Happen, this is a practical guide to discovering who you really are and manifesting your best self. It’s your backstage pass to the ups and downs that inevitably come with doing the ‘work’...

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