Identity, Character and Reputation

I find it to be appropriate for my first entry to revolve around the concepts of identity, character and reputation. I have begun to ponder how each is constructed over a period of time.

Identity as discussed here is specifically personal identity. In short, it is who you are - who you have become over time. Character shall be defined as how you act - how you have responded over time. And, reputation is the sum of your appearances - how your identity and character has been defined by others over time.

Lately, I have been trying to determine how much control one has over their identity, character and reputation.

One has the most amount of control over their character. Since, under normal circumstances, one has the most amount of control over their actions. Normally. There are many factors that build our personal identity which we do not choose or control: our age, race, nationality, economic background, gender and, arguably, sexuality. Our control of identity and character, however limited, gives us the illusion that we can control our reputation. This is the idea that we can control other people's thoughts (of us). But, it is an illusion.