Training From Identity instead of For identity

Everyone places their identity in something. It’s the first thing you want people to know about you, where your heart finds joy, what consumes your thoughts and emotions, and what you allow to define your worth. For a lot of us, that something is tied to our performance, our bodies, or our abilities. And training can become one of the places where that plays out.

Training for Identity

Training for identity looks like wanting people to know your reputation because of your performance, accomplishments, and abilities. It looks like allowing the number on the scale, your Strava likes, or the points you scored in a game to dictate your happiness. And many times, it’s more subtle than we’re aware of. It’s believing you’re more of a man when you can squat more than the guy next to you. It’s thinking you’ll finally feel confident walking into a room once you lose those eight pounds and fit into your favorite clothes. It’s telling yourself you’re worthy of love if you can just achieve that next goal. Or maybe you’ve had a rough day at work, took some Ls at home, and now you need a W on the court during your pickup game to feel better about yourself and your day.

We can pursue goals, celebrate progress, and enjoy competing. But when our worth and joy become dependent on these things, training starts carrying a weight it was never meant to carry. Our performance becomes more than performance. It becomes a measure of who we are. And that’s a heavy burden to live under.

Training From Identity

So what does it look like to train from a place of wholeness instead? It starts with understanding the love God has for you, a love that isn't dependent on your achievements, talents, or performance.

Its acknowledging that we're limited physically, mentally, and spiritually. We aren't whole or sufficient on our own. We live in a broken world, and we experience that brokenness in ourselves, too. But we don't have to find our hope in our own abilities. We can find unwavering joy in Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection. That gives us a foundation of peace, hope, and steadiness that isn't dependent on how we perform on any given day.

It means remembering that our worth doesn't come from the fleeting things of this world or the praise of other people. It comes from our Heavenly Father, who created this world and calls us His children. He knows our imperfections, weaknesses, and mistakes, and He loves us wholeheartedly. Through Christ, we are welcomed by grace and seen in wholeness.

That changes how we approach training. We can work hard without needing our performance to prove our worth. We can pursue improvement without believing we're not enough until we get there. We can compete, experience failure, and face setbacks without allowing them to define us. 

And in turn, others can experience us, on the court, in the weight room,  on the track, not for what we’ve accomplished but instead from the endless grace we’ve been given.

The Tension We All Face

The tension between training from identity and training for identity is a constant battle. Knowing these truths doesn't mean we stop caring about our performance or never struggle with comparison, pride, or insecurity. It means recognizing where our hearts are turning for their worth and joy, and continually bringing those things back to God. And that's not a battle we're meant to fight alone. We need God's strength and the encouragement of a community that reminds us of what is true when we’re prone to lose sight of it ourselves.

Training from a place of wholeness means drawing from a source that is whole, rather than asking our performance to make us whole. It frees us to put training, performance, and competition in their proper place. They can be spaces for growth, discipline, joy, connection, and many other good things without becoming the things that define us. There's so much more to explore here, and we'll talk about that in the future.

For now, consider this: Are you training to prove your worth, or are you training from a place of knowing where your worth is already found?