“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
~ Vincent van Gogh
Who am I ? Who are You ? This is the question I contemplated, as I watched the sun slowly rise this morning behind that big dark cloud.
Last night, I attended a party for the Grand Re-Opening of a friend’s business. I was by myself, and I did not know the vast majority of the attendees. My friend is very good at social introductions, and was kind enough to offer numerous intros. So it was a perfect opportunity for me to practice my “I am”, since almost everyone asked what I do for a living down here.
It’s funny, because my friend would usually start by introducing me as “Victoria used to own … (my computer store).” And this still came after I told her that I am now fully pursuing Business Consulting and Life Coaching.
Back in the day, this intro “Victoria owns PC Paradise” would usually make me cringe, because people would either have had a good experience or bad experience with my staff, and this would be reflected in the way they responded to me.
And often, that intro would lead people into long litanies about their computer problems, something which I had zero interest in talking about. First clue that I was really in the wrong profession!! If you want to talk about how your computer aids you or is hindering you in your business, I’m all ears! But to hear about your email program problems is just not my cup of tea. I’d usually end up steering those conversations over to my friend, Rob, who can talk about computer problems all day long, bless his beautiful techie soul 🙂
The Daily Love has a well written article on the “I AM” exercise. How did you answer the question? Most often our answers come from things we associate ourselves with rather than the true essence of who we are. We often list roles we play, interests, resume bullet points or “self-stats” such as our hometown, gender, height, appearance and so on.
But these external and situational things are not at all who we are and using them as a way to define ourselves is problematic for two main reasons. First we can be limited by the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. A lot of us hold on to information from our past that is not what we want to carry into our present and future. Our “self-stats” that come from our ego can blind us from seeing our “SELF-truths” that come from our authentic self. Second, if you allow your identity to be defined by people or things outside of you, then you are dependent on those external things.
So as I made my way around the room, I was left to test out many ways of describing my “profession”. It’s still not really who I am, but it is becoming a small testament at this point, because my profession is coming from the authentic self, the person who has a huge compassion for humanity, our mutual struggles, who wants to protect all of God’s creatures, who wants to see a better world, and who wants to help people create professions which aid humanity and their own life purpose.
How do you put that into words? Life Coach? I found that to be too “woo-wooey”. People didn’t seem to take me very seriously, or don’t want to admit they might need my services. Dead end conversations. Business Consultant at least opened the door to people talking about their business. I could then ask about websites, and if they needed training on how to create one for themselves (and the life coaching part can sneak in the back door). I am a writer, a blogger, a philosopher, to those of you who know me here. But I am still left with not having the exact words to describe my services, which reflect my true purpose. Guidance Counselor came to mind this morning as I sat. It sounds a bit more serious than Life Coach. I’ll try that on for size on my next outing. But it’s exhilarating, knowing I can be anything I want to be ….
How about you? Does your profession reflect your essence, your true nature. Want to give the I AM exercise a try? I’ll leave the link below.
Who ever you think you are, I leave you with Steve Pavlina’s words:
“Self determination means that you’re completely free to decide what you want. You don’t need anyone’s permission or approval. Your choices are yours.”
I look forward to seeing the real you, and sharing the real me ♥
—-
I AM exercise:
http://thedailylove.com/answering-the-question-“who-am-i”/
