lifestyle

What do you think you are?

I am a student, I am a writer, I am a husband, I am a father, I am an athlete, I am a silversmith, I am a foreigner, I am an Australian, I am a Christian, I am a company director, I am……

How should I describe myself?

The words that we use to describe ourselves tell others two very important things about us:

1. They tell others what we do, are, or believe.
2. They tell us what is important to us, important enough for us to define ourselves by.

Sometimes what we call ourselves is conventional:

“I am a family man, and a music lover”

Sometimes it is more radical:

“I am a social media evangelist and a self sufficient farmer”

What does this tell us?  What if the two descriptions above described two people you meet?    

Who are you likely to be more curious about, the person described in conventional or in radical terms?  Who are you likely to follow up or remember after a first meeting?  Who is likely to create a stronger network of connections simply because of how they describe themselves?

So maybe it is time we re-evaluated how we describe ourselves.  I am as slow to act in this area as anyone, but I think the time has come to do some thinking.  Instead of describing myself as I always have, maybe it is time to think of other more interesting ways to describe what I do with myself.  Instead of calling myself an Ex patriot in Japan, perhaps I should be considering how I can help myself to stand out from the crowd of ex patriots in Japan.  Instead of calling myself a work-at-home-Dad, there must be a more positive way to differentiate myself from others.  It isn’t an easy job to find a new angle, that is both truthful and interesting.  It must describe, but not explain away, who you are.  It should leave others curious but with a basic understanding of us.  It should be easy to grasp but still unusual, to be sticky.  This is particularly difficult when we are describing something that we have been talking about in conventional terms for a long time.  It can be hard to redefine an old description.

How do these examples sound:

1)”I am an accountant with Dell”

1 revised)”I helped develop the account payment system that you used last time you bought hardware from Dell”

2)”I am a father of 4 children.  They are 9, 11, 13,and 15 years old”

2 revised) “I am helping my children to become responsible adults”

3)”I play the guitar”

3 revised) “I spend a lot of time re-interpreting old rock guitar classics”

These are simple examples of how an ordinary description can be brought to life with a few meaningful details or a new angle.  Remembering that we can’t afford to bore others with unnecessary details, how do we interest them?

One bonus to re-defining how you describe yourself is that how you describe yourself will usually have a gradual effect on how you see yourself.  How you see yourself will gradually have an effect on who you are.  From this, we can see how our choice of words has the potential to change us for better or worse. 

Imagine you are a “Janitor at a factory” and this is how you describe yourself.  What if you decided to describe yourself as “The person in control of first impressions at the factory”?  This is distinctly true because often the first impression of a place is formed subconsciously by  how well it is looked after.  Surely a person who is responsible for effecting first impressions would be a whole lot more motivated and productive than someone who thinks of themselves as a janitor.  It all comes down to how the person describes themselves and how this effects their image of themselves.

What changes can you make immediately to how you describe yourself?  As long as it is truthful, and motivating, everything is up for grabs.  Try giving your descriptions of yourself a makeover and see what a difference it makes.

Thanks

Tom

© LifeGoalAction.