It’s All Personal Until It Isn’t

I remember how freaked out I was when I first joined the masses on Facebook. I wrote an hysterical post here about how confused I was by this foreign world and my incomprehension of the user etiquette and technology. It all felt too personal when it wasn’t at all. After some lightening quick friend requests from long ago lovers, I went screaming away only to return for the sake of my baby blog I was starting. When you make it about you, you miss how it really isn’t and how it can be too. Taking you out of the equation may make the most sense.

I’m now faced with another need to push out into the unfamiliar zone of self-promotion. I need you to read and to tell your friends to read but the asking is tougher than tough. I need to be louder and believe like I’ve never believed before. And I am sooo uncomfortable in that zone. So I had a talk with me the other day and this is what I thought out in my journal.

I need to take “me” out of the equation.

I must act as if this is a blog and writer I’ve found that I can’t get enough of and have to tell everyone about. Yell from the rooftops that she is talented and inspires me everyday to do things I fear. We’d certainly say all of this about a best friend but not about ourselves. Women aren’t supposed to be like this where sometimes guys talk themselves up when they ain’t got nothing to show for it. That’s the way it is sometimes.

Over lunch recently, my friend Janet told us that she and her friend decided how life is often a matter of you acting the role of you in certain situations. And in her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert cites an 18^th century writer who would dress up and strut around feeling fancy to encourage his creative muse to visit. To court the courage and flair he did not posses seems a good way of ridding the me-ness of it all. Court that creativity and pretend I’m that other blogger who’s great.

We all could benefit from a little “acting as if” in our lives. I do it with the kids sometimes to lead their moods and behavior in a direction I need them to go. And apparently I need to do the same with my writing career. Call myself Brunhilde and wear a great big hat with feathers in it. Or don an official badge so I can act as if. Fake it until I make it. I created this workshop badge to give myself credit for something I already did. What if I could wear one as a pass to do something scary. Like self-promotion.

Every time I go and search my blog for a post I remember I wrote and want to include a link to, I find so many great pieces I wrote as well. I just searched acting and pretend and there were 30 wonderful posts that deserve recognition. So here’s to not forgetting ourselves and our talents and to using them daily. And to finding people who appreciate them. Especially ourselves.

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And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.