The Power of a New Name
A field note on identity and change
“Wash the Face of a Teacher”
Years ago, I worked in a clinic that served people living with HIV.
Medication adherence mattered — “every dose, every time,” was the mantra. If patients stopped their meds, they often died.
Behavior change wasn’t theoretical. It was life or death.
I heard about a correctional facility in Florida that had something promising: a peer health education program — inmates went through a certificate program where they learned about teaching their fellow inmates about healthier habits. It seemed to be effective and popular.
So I paid my own way and flew down to see it.
I met with the program director and learned about their successes. Near the end of my visit, he asked if I would speak briefly to a group of men who were graduating. They were receiving certificates as peer educators. For some of the men, it was the first certificate or award they had ever received. Many of them had not finished high school.
They had done the work. Studied. Shown up. They were about to go out and help others.
But I knew that gaining new information alone often doesn’t carry us very far.
Identity does. We behave consistently with whom we believe we are, what we are.
So I said this:
“When you wake up tomorrow and wash your face, remember—you’re not washing the face of the person you used to be, the person who did whatever brought you to be here in a correctional center. You are washing the face of a teacher. When you look in the mirror, that’s a teacher looking back.”
The room was quiet. Afterward, a few of the men came up to me and seemed genuinely excited about the concept of identity change.
We live up to the name we accept.
If a man believes he’s a criminal, he behaves like one.
If he believes he’s a patient, he waits to be helped.
If he believes he’s a teacher, he teaches.
Behavior follows identity the way a shadow follows the body.
I’ve seen it in prisons.
I’ve seen it in business.
I’ve seen it in my own life.
Change the name.
Then the new, desired behavior that you can be proud of has somewhere to land.