Monday, September 06, 2010

Becoming Myself

It's Labor Day, so I am celebrating (somewhat ironically, I suppose) by not laboring.

I spent part of the afternoon engaged in Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead (to add the fun, it was a free e-book!) which is a reasonably straightforward, in-your-face book about managing your career (versus managing your job) - the actual layout of the book is probably as much of a joy to read as is the book itself.

The best quote I got from the book from the first reading (out of a plethora of great quotes) is "You can be truly great only when you can truly be yourself".

If I had to point to a disconnect now, that would be it. I am not truly "myself" in the positions I've held, both from the point of view of what I do and the point of view of who I am at work. To be sure, I've bent the rules wherever I can, creating this sort "reasonable crazy person" image that follows me around - but at the core there is still a sense of having to kowtow to a greater corporate culture, a sort of bureaucracy that stifles any innovation or creativity except in prescribed channels. And that doesn't address the core matter of what I deal with from day to day: important to be sure, but incredibly boring minutiae that so often has to be fought over to garner attention.

So here's the question: Who am I? And how do I become myself at work?

2 comments:

  1. The obvious start is to define who and what, exactly, you are. Until you can do that you cannot formulate a career that reflects who you are. How do you determine honestly who you truly are and not just give the definitions that you think others around you want to see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, so Silverline had the same comment in a different way. It's a legitimate question, one that is worthy of some thought along with other considerations this fall.

    How do I do it? I guess just write (that's my medium) without concern of who or what people will think.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome (and necessary, for good conversation). If you could take the time to be kind and not practice profanity, it would be appreciated. Thanks for posting!