Say What You Are, Not What You Do
December 11th, 2007
This is difficult advice to follow, because to the standard American mode of thinking (and probably to others as well), it seems a little bit false, or a little bit arrogant, or a little bit starry-eyed. However, in certain contexts, it’s accepted. I’m becoming convinced that in order to get to do what you really want to do, you need to start labeling yourself what you are, rather than what you do. And they aren’t the same thing.
Exhibit A: Graduates in acting, theatre, and a variety of other creative endeavors typically get out of school and go right on working in the restaurants or other combinations of part-time jobs they’ve had while going through school.
But if you ask them what they do, they’ll tell you they’re an Actor. Without a trace of shame, not hiding anything, not trying to be something they aren’t. He/she is an Actor. They just aren’t doing it full time, yet. To the driven individual, that’s irrelevant. They won’t tell you they’re a waiter, because that’s not who they are.
Exhibit B: A bit more on the radical side, I had a friend in Canada who had been deeply, passionately involved in the socialist movement there. Americans like to typify Canada as socialist, but rest assured there are always people who want things to go even further. Without getting into the rightness or wrongness of the politics at all, that was my friend: completely immersed in what, to him, was The Cause.
If you were to ask him what he did, he would tell you I’m a professional revolutionary. Didn’t matter that he was a student and might have had some part-time job somewhere. What he was (in his words) was a revolutionary.
I think you find the same with people who will tell you they are an artist, an entrepreneur, a writer, a musician—whatever. What they’re doing right now to pay the bills, is irrelevant.
On the other hand, you have most people, who will tell you what they do, and then try to suffix it with, but I’d really like to… I understand that; I’ve usually done that. I’m just starting to think that if you actually want to get there, you have to switch to saying I am a [what you want to do], and you’ll probably have to do that before you’ve actually “arrived”.
So what am I? I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve figured out what I want to do when I grow up.