|
|
|
And You Can Quote Me
How to use quotes in writing so that the words are witty, wise and succinct. Put another way: I love using quotes in my writing.
I don't mind having others put words in my mouth—not when their words are witty, wise and succinct. Put another...
EQ at the Office
Please feel free to distribute or reprint this article, keeping the bio line intact. Emotional intelligence means knowing how to get along. Playing too hard at the office is just as bad as refusing to play at all, studies show. Office politics is...
Factors To Make Or Break Your Home Business (And Home Business Residual Income Streams That Work!)
As our divine world drives furiously into this new ?Information Age? a new type of millionaire is fast emerging from the incredible changes that have been driven by the internet ? the ?Work From Home Millionaire?. This article probes into the...
The Wages of Science
In the United States, Congress approved, last month, increases in the 2003 budgets of both the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. America is not alone in - vainly - trying to compensate for imploding capital markets...
Trust in a "digital economy"
Gaining trust is one thing, retaining it is even harder. History teaches us that once trust is lost, fortunes usually disappear shortly thereafter. We may be at such a crossroads now with the most popular man-made currency ever. As Margaret Thatcher...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
My Identity Crisis
My Identity Crisis
By David Leonhardt
When we are young it is all so simple. We know exactly what I want to "be" when we grow up.
You know what it's like: "I want to be a fireman." I want to be a ballerina." "I want to be a movie star." "I want to be a nuclear physicist specializing in embryonic schisms in post-menopausal subatomic particles."
This aspect of growing up came back to haunt me recently when reading a magazine article by someone working in television who had always wanted to be a celebrity. To paraphrase her words, "It never occurred to me that I might have to actually do anything."
Well, here I am, a fully-grown adult. Or perhaps I am no longer fully grown – I'm not sure at what age we start shrinking! But I do have a confession to make; I never knew what I wanted to "be". I knew only what I wanted to do.
What I wanted to do was design cities, urban spaces, bus routes. No, that's not true. What I really wanted to do was design maps...but most map companies want map designers to simply mimic the city's existing design. Geesh, where's the creativity in that?
So I was led astray, falling in love with politics instead. For a while I worked as a political aide, plotting to become King of the World. Amazingly, it took only five years for reality to grind my idealistic innocence to sawdust and send me on a frantic search for a do-it-yourself lobotomy kit. (I never did get to be King of the World, nor did I ever find that do-it-yourself lobotomy kit.)
I spent the next decade-and-a-half as a consumer advocate and lobbyist, doing media relations, government relations and industry relations -- none of which are technically verbs that one can actually "do".
At social events, the accountants and lawyers had it easy. "I am
an accountant," says it all.
I was not so fortunate.
"I am a consumer advocate," I would say.
"So what do you do?"
"Well, I talk to the media and to the government and to industry," I would explain.
"Ahaaa... and I talk to the tooth fairy. So what do you do?"
Now, I have an even harder time when somebody asks what I do. Most people have no clue what search engine optimization is, which is my main "career". Few people really understand what freelance writing is, except if they read a freelance writer's article in a magazine . I don't even try to mention that I run three websites and do affiliate marketing. But people do understand what it means to be an author.
"Wow, you wrote a book on happiness? Congratulations. So when's your next book coming out?"
Which is when I have to explain how a book really doesn't feed a family, and if I took the time to write a second book, it would take time away from search engine optimization and affiliate marketing...
"Huh, what's that?"
"Never mind," I answer. "I'm a stay-at-home dad." Which also is true. People might look at me weird, but at least they understand me. Or, so they think.
All of which brings me back to that question I never answered when I was young: what do I want to be when I grow up? I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer to find out. Like when I grow up.
About the Author
David Leonhardt is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/Item.asp?Catalog=Books&Item=059517826X
Read more personal growth articles:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/self-actualization-articles.html
Visit his liquid vitamins store:
http://www.vitamin-supplements-store.net
Or his happiness website:
http://www.thehappyguy.com
|
|
|
|
|
|