The Fortitude Chronicle: A Weekly Digest of Athletic Determination

Monday Momentum

For the Relentless Mind

How We Engineer Ourselves: The Ongoing Project of Human Identity

There’s a persistent myth that identity is something you find digging through your past to uncover some buried "true self." But the truth is far more dynamic—and far more empowering. Who you are is not simply discovered; it’s constructed, revised, and lived into being. In the laboratory of life, you are the architect, the builder, and the building itself.

Identity is not a static label. It’s the sum of your memories, experiences, relationships, and values—a living structure that both guides and is shaped by your actions. It operates on multiple levels:

• Personal identity: Your unique characteristics, values, and self-concept

• Social identity: The groups you belong to—race, religion profession, nationality

• Psychological continuity: The thread that connects your past, present, and future selves

Think of identity as both a blueprint and a construction site: it gives direction, but it’s always under renovation.

Identity isn’t a passive inheritance—it’s an active, ongoing construction project. Like any good engineer, you:

• Explore and experiment: Try different roles, values, and identities on for size, testing what fits and what doesn’t

• Commit and implement: Make choices about who you want to be, then act on those choices

• Craft your narrative: Weave past, present, and future into a coherent story that makes sense of your journey

This is not a one-time event. It’s a process that repeats, deepens, and evolves.

You don’t have just one identity. You’re constantly engineering multiple, sometimes competing, versions of yourself:

• Professional/Academic: How you see yourself in your work or studies

• Relational: The friend, partner, or parent you are

• Cultural/Ethnic: Your sense of belonging to a group or heritage

• Ideological: The beliefs and values you hold

• Personal Interests: The passions and hobbies that color your life

The real challenge? Integrating these into a coherent whole—especially when they pull you in different directions.

Identity engineering unfolds in cycles:

Cycle 1: Formation

1. Exploration: Consider different options

2. Experimentation: Test roles and values in real life

3. Evaluation: Assess what feels authentic

4. Commitment: Decide what to keep

Cycle 2: Maintenance

1. In-depth exploration: Deepen your understanding of chosen commitments

2. Refinement: Adjust and strengthen your identity

3. Integration: Weave everything together

4. Revision: Revisit and revise as needed

This cycle never really ends—identity is always in motion.

Employ several tools to shape your sense of self:

• Narrative Construction: You’re the author of your own story, integrating experiences into a personal narrative that gives your life continuity and coherence

• Social Scaffolding: Relationships, communities, and cultures act as scaffolding, supporting your identity work and reflecting back who you are

• Values Integration: You actively choose which values to prioritize and how to live them out

• Role Experimentation: Trying new roles, jobs, or lifestyles to see what fits

Unlike a house, your identity is never “done.” It’s a lifelong project, marked by periods of stability and periods of change. Transitional times—new jobs, relationships, losses—often bring more fluctuation and uncertainty, but also more opportunity for growth.

This variability isn’t a flaw; it’s a feature. It means you’re alive to possibility, open to revision, and capable of growth.

While you can’t control every aspect of your identity—your family background, certain physical traits—you have immense agency over:

• Which parts of yourself you emphasize

• How you integrate different elements

• The stories you tell about your life

• The commitments you make and keep

At the end of the day, in its most simple form, who we are is what we do and say repeatedly. Identity isn’t just a thought experiment or a feeling—it’s the sum of your habits, your words, and your actions, lived out over time. The rituals you keep, the boundaries you enforce, the values you embody—these are the bricks and mortar of your identity.

Identity engineering is the most sophisticated and ongoing project you’ll ever undertake. You are both the architect and the architecture, the builder and the building. The beauty isn’t in achieving a final product, but in the ongoing creativity, agency, and meaning-making that defines what it means to be human.

The world will offer you scripts, but the most meaningful identity is the one you build—deliberately, repeatedly, and with your own hands.

Two Quotes

1. "Winning is fun... Sure. But winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you’ve done is the point. The game is never over. No matter what the scoreboard reads or what the referee says, you never quit."- Pat Summitt

2. "I’ve learned that the journey is more important than the destination. Every setback, every injury, every defeat has taught me something about myself. The real victory is in overcoming yourself, in pushing past your own limits, and in finding joy in the struggle, not just the triumph."– Novak Djokovic

Three Posts

To Building Fortitude.

 Best Regards,

Colin Jonov, Founder & CEO Athletic Fortitude