Self-authorship & designing your life
How do we know what we know? Self-authorship invites us to explore what truly matters and design a life aligned with our values. By regularly reflecting on our beliefs, identity, and relationships, we can shed what no longer serves us and evolve. Here, I share personal experiences with self-authorship and the challenges of personal growth. [15.2.25.]
Key points
Define your own path: Self-authorship is creating your own beliefs, identity and relationships rather than passively accepting what society dictates.
Listening to inner guidance: Trusting your intuition, exploring your values and letting go of old stories allows you to make decisions to guide a more authentic life.
Awareness: By being aware of flaws, false beliefs and negative attitudes, it helps break destructive cycles and shifts from victim mentality to agency.
What is self-authorship?
Self-authorship is defined by Kegan (1982) as "the internal capacity to define one's beliefs, identity and social relations" (p.269). Each person can collect, interpret, analyze, and reflect, to form their perspectives (Baxter Magolda, 2001), interactions and decisions.
In simple terms, by defining our beliefs, identity and relationships, we can authentically author our own story and life (rather than following what has been passed down to us). We can ask: What are our values? Who are we? And how do we relate to others? From this we can decide what path to take (rather than passively accept one that has been given to us).
It uses our metacognition (examining our thought process, asking questions about how we know what we know) to challenge our assumptions, perceptions and learning processes. By examining how we think, we’re less likely to get swept up in status quo thinking and show original critical thought.
Simple steps to self-authorship
Authoring our identity and trusting in our self-belief is challenging in a noisy world. Authoring and mastering our own identity is a key component in acting in integrity to our truth: “To thine own self be true,” William Shakespeare.
Here are some suggestions:
Trust your intuition: What do your instincts tell you? We’re often taught to shut off our emotions and only listen to our logic but our feelings are a powerful source of guidance. Learn to listen to how your body is reacting to a person, place or situation.
Reflect and review: Regularly review and explore your beliefs, values and identity and know it’s ok to shed outdated certain aspects. 2025 is the year of the snake after all, and this year is about the shedding of old identities, the ego, the past, and any negative emotions. Just as the snake symbolises letting go, we can regularly ask what we need to release and what we are holding onto.
Silent vows: There is a strength in silence. When we listen to our inner voice we can sense what we need (without needing external validation). Making a commitment or vow to follow a meaningful goal lets us pursue our calling (even if others may not understand).
Why is self-authorship so powerful?
By understanding our identity, beliefs and relationships we can have more self-compassion for ourselves and others. Exploring our internal process and how we think refreshes how we think, feel and act. It can also let us fully realise where our false assumptions come from, discovering better ways to work and live.
We don’t have to be victim to circumstance as we unconsciously keep making the same mistake expecting a different result. We can spot where we are going wrong and act immediately to improve our way of being.
A personal journey into self-authorship
Taking radical responsibility of our lives is about being honest with ourselves. It’s comforting to hold onto our old identity or lazy habits because they provide comfort in stormy times. And yet, my soul calls for more. I long to become awake to new possibilities, having the self-determinism to make any vision I set a reality (rather than live a life on repeat).
Living in integrity to what we find meaningful has it’s ups and downs. Everyone loves external validation but when you take a new path there is silence and a wilderness that is often overwhelming. Step by step we forge our own path and with this brings new routes and connections forward. I slip into victimhood quite easily because who wants to get up early, set goals, keep yourself accountable when you don’t do something? It’s constant work but designing your life is effortful and worthwhile. If we are to examine where our thoughts come from, what we truly believe and how to live in a more expansive, expressive way —we will be stretched. This is something we need to accept and even celebrate.