Hello, I want to represent myself…
I’ve seen over years, as we move through life, we get to know new people and new communities. All of us has past history, efforts, track of activity. Even tries and fails are important and say a lot. Serious things aside, it’s just interesting what are our hobbies and some sports we’ve done, clubs we attended when we were young. Pretty sure my old friends and family know me well, they see all the shapes of me as a human. When we meet new people, it’s mostly the case they know very little of us if at all. We have to represent ourselves. How much time do we have to do it? To say this or that. What do we choose to tell? It’s always seems like sort of trade-off. And it’s not that rare to have a feeling that we haven’t said something important.
Another aspect is mental fatigue. And now think that we have to represent ourselves over and over again. It really causes mental fatigue. When it comes to certain level, we can’t remain that positive and enthusiastic. Here it comes, when we can miss our truly shine, true colors of our soul, vivid facets of our being. This is our tired spokesman. We don’t want our spokesman to be tired, we want him to make a good job.
I really love to meet new people, to talk and to do things together. In order to stay productive, and get all the best for each other from our interactions, I propose to lead a repository where we represent ourselves. So, that we can link people to read it. Any can notice particular things what’s interesting to him(her), decide on which depth (s)he wants to go. In this way, we get clear head, and…! more precious time to talk to the point in the time of interaction. We get more time to interact, so we spend time wiser.
So, routine representations are eliminated. Such approach makes us less stressed of representations. Especially on the interviews.
One can tell — “well, there’s a CV for this purpose”. Well, I think our Curriculum Vitae(s) are not quite that what we were talking about. Remember that time editing CVs for each potential job position? Tinkering with minor changes here and there. It feels like gambling sometimes, how to highlight some of your awesome qualities?! Hey, You’re awesome! I propose that the way we have formal CVs today miss much of our personality. Many important things missed. There’s no exact answer how our ideal representation looks like, but we can and already have a discussion.
(From my life experience)
By the way, for some that have any kind of emotional trauma in the past, returning to that point in self representation is self devastating. It’s like hitting myself in a sore spot, again and again. But on the other side, it’s very important to tell that, so other person understand the full picture of you. So that people understand why certain things are difficult to you and why they cause unusual reaction. It’s ok, you’re working on it. But having people to know can really smoothen the process. Overall, I think that’s a good way, because many people have traumas from difficult times in lives, some are quite similar, some are very different. When we don’t know where the person comes from, we can percept him as a strange human. But often, when we discover the story behind him, we get completely different view. We get empathy, understanding and respect. We don’t hit him in his sore place. And all the cringiness becomes something sweet.
(The appeal thereon changed to “abstract” YOU)
So, my proposition of a solution is — to write your trauma story in one place. Arrange this as a story, or FAQ. Or, unite both. Write some story, it may be a timeline, and then add FAQ section. As you hear people asking you new questions, add them to FAQ section. Then, just refer people with a link to this story block. This way you’ve achieved very important thing. You’ve left behind this difficult staff, stopped traumatizing yourself by fatigue of repeating it, by returning back to this emotions, by senseless talks and questions on the topic. From now questions if they be, supposedly be more profound. You’ve gotten strong, you’ve overcome it, and now you’re moving forward. Your true self is what you’re trying to do and doing now, it is where you want to move. Love!
Well, all the above maybe super edgy for some, but writing at least somewhere on the web, any kind of social network about your difficult point, seems also can help. We don’t want to preserve all inside, “just” leave it there, outside. The greatest thing that it is spoken, even if we don’t have subscribers for now. That is said in public space and it possibly can reach to people. So, that’s not that matter for us, let the post live its own life. We’re renewed after speaking out loud.
*Mental fatigue I am talking about
It’s like telling the same long story of your vacation over and over again. First time it’s kinda fun. But then it becomes harsh. My example is with a family. I am telling something separately to each family member. When I’m telling the story the third time, it annoys me subconsciously and my consciousness doesn’t do well on overcoming it. The story looses beauty, and some cool facts are missed. I am answering questions with tension. I don’t want to be so, I want to give love to every member of family, and share with them what I have to share. The solution I think of is just telling to them simultaneously in one group chat, in video, in written text form. Thus, not repeating myself and saving energy for more deeds, including the dear family.
Finally, What are the ways to build our image?
*Having online presence
By the way, it works well with public figures. They have online presence, we can see their activities, we can see them talking. So we have their image. We empathize with them. We see the track of their deeds. This is what I exactly was talking about. And we can apply similar approaches.
**Social media?!
Idk, I don’t lead social media accounts, maybe that’s the place. Maybe there, when you see somebody writing, you get the image of the person. But I am not that sure, you don’t generally refer to social network as CV.
By the way, I saw there’re employers that indeed look at candidate social network. Generally, I am talking about interpersonal connections and not about job, but job is also important.
LinkedIn? (LinkedIn, I think is too formal.)
***The work we do
I have a thought that maybe our best representation is the work we do, but it takes time to go there, and by the time you get there you have to gain credibility and build connections.
In conclusion, I have these thoughts for a while. Still don’t know how I’ll do the image of myself. Is it necessary to have a website?! Well, it may be interesting form, but I consider even starting from some document that I can save on the cloud and having a link to it. Regularly updating.
Don’t forget, as much as you show your activity, the better! (Hhh, first of all, telling to myself :)) )
I want to leave it as open discussion. How do you think one can effectively represent (her)himself in our age?
