PhD as my Identity

Today, I read a tweet by an academic saying her life became much less stressful after she started treating her PhD as a job rather than her identity, which got me thinking about how I treat my own PhD. In the functional aspects, I suppose I do treat it as a job. I work during during what the world considers as office hours and never work Sundays. I have a fairly well established routine. And before lockdown, I never worked from home. But, on an more personal level, it is a big part of my identity. And, that's not entirely by choice. I know I am not a genius and I know that my PhD is not going to change the world, or even come close. But, the simple truth is I don't  have a life outside my PhD--no partner, not many friends, no super-hobby that can consume large parts of my free time. So, yes, when things don't go well with  my PhD, I don't have anything else to distract me. But, surely there are worse problems to have. I don't suffer from impostor syndrome so when the PhD is not gong well, I don't feel like an imbecile.So, yeah, on the whole, I am fine with the PhD being part of my identity even though I know fully well I may not be able to remain in academia after I finish because of the state of the job market.