Lately, I’ve been pondering the prevailing question we ask one another when getting acquainted…”And, what do you do?”
I’ve never found a satisfying answer for this question…possibly because I’ve been self-employed for almost my entire adult life–I did have about 18 months where I received W2 income against commission sales; still essentially I was self-employed. At that time, I didn’t want to say, “I’m about to sell you some Mutual Funds, or an Annuity,” so I would introduce myself as a “consultant” for New York Advisory Group.
Early on, I could say, “I teach at a pre-school for autistic and emotionally disturbed (now a politically incorrect term–it’s what we said then) children.” A year later, I could say, “I teach at the Corrales Community School–a ‘free’ school, patterned after Summerhill.” A year or so later, I could clearly say, “I’m a craftsperson–I make handmade pottery and sell it at galleries and crafts fairs.” That period lasted about fourteen years.
In recent years, it’s gotten much more dicey. WHAT is it that I do? There was a time when I liked to say, “As little as possible…” Which was absolutely untrue.
Then there was the idea of being a “PhB”…a practicing human being. There was also the time when I realized that other cultures are much less interested in what people do; they ask and want to know, “Who are your people?” or, “Where is your village?
Yesterday, the tenants in our office building had to make a decision about a new sign. With zoning regulations and space allocation based on square footage and a border allowance, our sign is 37″ by 10.” Well, my name, my husband’s name and our phone number just about fills the space. How do we find one word, that in bold print sums up what we do? There are many “catch-all” terms like consultant, educator, coach. We’ve tried a few of them in our branding tag lines…“Educating Families for Healthy Futures” and “Coaching for Skillful Living” and “Facilitating Appreciative Relationships.”
Once, years ago, I did a discovery exercise that had something to do with naming your “essence.” I’ve forgotten the details–it involved index cards with nouns and verbs. I do remember what I came up with–“Illuminating Revealer.” What do I do? “I’m an Illuminating Revealer.”
Titles are so handy, yet tell us nothing–“I’m the CEO, CFO, COO, President of, Director of…” When my children were younger, I was identified as “Sara’s mom” or “Grace’s mom” and knew greeted other parents the same way–“Oh, you must be Donna’s mom.”
In the end, what do I do? I’m interested in offering a different way of seeing and being. I’m dedicated to waking people up who want to be awake and to not disturbing those who prefer to stay asleep. I’m like the snooze button on your clock radio…relentless for about an hour…either you’ll wake up and get up, or go back to sleep and give up. To borrow a line from the poem in the post below:
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give–yes or no, or maybe–
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
Very interesting! As I have discovered before with people who create excellent and interesting weblogs, yours is simply an extension of your person. I like that!
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