Humble Pie

As some of you know, I’m a pretty unassuming person. Which is kind of interesting, because at 5’10”, with mostly dark hair apart from 2 sections of white a la Bride of Frankenstein, you would think that I was born for the limelight. In truth, I would rather shy away from it than seek it out.

Not good at selfies!

Fortunately, (or unfortunately as the case may be) as I move into this next phase of my life, one of the things that I will need to develop is the ability to stand in the limelight, with a strong belief in myself and my abilities. Now, on the face of it, that doesn’t seem like too big a deal because I am confident in myself and my abilities. But it is a quiet, self-effacing kind of confidence. (Is that an oxymoron?) I don’t want to shout it from the rooftops. That would be self aggrandizing - making myself more important than others. 

What?? Where the heck did that come from?

Part of me knows that wanting to share my talents, abilities, and knowledge with the world is NOT self-aggrandizing, because how are you supposed to help people if they don’t know how you can help?

So, what’s REALLY the issue?

I know there is a difference between promoting your message and promoting yourself. But if you still have to get that message across, how do you work with the subtleties between where your hard work and abilities end, and where the message, that you are the caretaker of, begins?

You see it all the time. The gurus who get so caught up in their own hype they seriously lose the plot, losing themselves in the message they bring, or individuals more interested showing off their skills than putting those skills into action. I don’t want to be that person. I’ve worked too hard, and the last thing I want to do is get caught up in the cult of personality.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m worried about this happening to me. I’m not famous, nor do I have a mob of adoring people who think the sun shines out of my bottom. But I don’t think it’s really about being famous. I think it’s about being genuine. I think it’s about honestly acknowledging and appreciating your abilities, talents, intelligence, other people’s adoration, or whatever, but not letting it go to your head.

My dilemma continued. How do I acknowledge all the amazing things that I offer, and let people know about how I may be able to help them without sounding like an arrogant jerk? Up to now, my strategy involved self-effacing promotion, (that is DEFINITELY an oxymoron) and probably just confused people because they couldn’t figure out if I knew what I was doing or not. It’s hard to tell people, “I do know what I am doing, but I don’t want to seem like an ego maniac.” Um...

So, how do you do it? How do you confidently promote yourself and maintain a genuine but humble quality? While meditating on that question, a strange looking equation popped into my head. Humble is = (equal to), not < or > (less than or greater than). Hold that = (equal to) feeling when promoting yourself and your work.

Well, I can certainly give it a try.