Use powerful words to open up your career universe and promote yourself
Hands down, the HARDEST part about professional identity is...
Language.
We simply don't have enough terms to accurately express who we are. Without the right words, we can't fully convey our professional identities.
Even with the invention of new roles, we use a limited lexicon of occupational language. This is due to standardization, government classification systems, traditions, and degree programs.
Remember this: Language is POWER.
We must not underestimate the power of the words we use and CHOOSE to use about ourselves, especially when we're interviewing, networking, applying for jobs, or promoting ourselves.
In order to unbind ourselves from fixed constructs, old narratives, and unconscious linguistic habits, we must break old identity schemas.
Brené Brown says:
"Having access to the right words can open up entire universes."
Are you ready to open up a new universe about you and your work identity?
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO EXPAND YOUR LANGUAGE ABOUT YOURSELF
How do you find the right terms to help yourself-- and the people you work with-- understand who you truly are?
Imagine if you had...
A dictionary of professional identities- a visceral collection of professional identities that defy traditional categorization. It would be rich with artistic illustrations and stories that exemplify uniqueness and breadth of who people are in their work using nonconforming, non-standardized descriptions.
This dictionary would provide a wider depiction of what professionals really do, and would allow you to think differently and borrow new vocabulary and images to help you define who you are in your work too. You could point to three or four examples that resonate with you and share them with coworkers and employers so they can understand you.
The goal is instead of pointing to a limited set of job titles and keywords to define you, the dictionary expands subtle meanings and nuances to bring clearer vision about your uniqueness in work.
Here are a few analogs to represent what's possible:
Artifact one: #PainStories Project
Pain is hard to describe (much like our professional identity).
Medical communities rely upon a 1-10 pain scale to help assess how bad your pain is (1= mild and 10= extreme), but this reduces pain to a number. It's a far cry from explaining what the pain actually feels like, and it leads to misunderstandings and misdiagnoses (akin to how being misunderstood for who we are in our work).
Bodyform asked the question:
"How might we better understand the true pain of endometriosis to better define and diagnose women's chronic pain instead of using numbers on a scale?"
That's why they started #PainStories where they asked women how their pain really feels and told them to describe it in metaphorical ways.
From this, they created the world's first Pain Dictionary-- written and illustrated by endometriosis sufferers (to do what numbers can't) and seeded on social by influencers. The dictionary gives a visceral voice to this hard to explain issue.
Artifact two: Book of Imaginary Beings
I could have chosen any number of books on mythical creatures, but the Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges is one of my faves. Borges is a famous Argentine short story writer who is often seen as philosopher who influenced the genre of magical realism.
I adored this book as a springboard of inspiration for my students when I was an art teacher. Specifically, I used it because it highlights the unusual, unexpected, and unknown, whereas other books focus on familiar fantastical beasts.
In the table of contents, most of the categories of creatures are hard to pronounce and even sound made up (What is an Abtu and Anet?).
This is another perfect analogy for pushing ourselves in naming our unnamable professional identities. Who said you can't make up a new word to call yourself? Here's proof of the beauty and power of invention and rule breaking.
This book is a wonderful compilation of images and explanations that push us to imagining the existence of "new beings."
NOTE: Many of these creatures are hybrids too!
Artifact three: The Language of Emotion
Chew on this.
"What does it mean if the vastness of human emotion and experience can only be expressed as mad, sad, or happy?"- Brené Brown
Even emotion requires a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or even an atlas.
TOOLS TO OPEN UP YOUR career UNIVERSE
"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Language is the barrier stopping us from expressing who we truly are in our work.
The more we limit ourselves to convention, the more we limit the extent of what our "career universe" can be. If we can't imagine a new reality for our "professional identity," then we can't expect others to either.
Right now, I don't foresee creating a Professional Identity Dictionary, but I hope to someday. I think we need it.
THREE EXERCISES to promote yourself
If you want to push the limits of your professional identity language and career universe, first, you're going to have to rely on creativity. Your ability to access new words falls greatly on your ability to delve deeply into creative writing.
Muster up your courage.
Dig into your creative and poetic language reservoir.
Here are some suggestions:
1. Draw WHO you are in your work: Many of you have shared THE most interesting models, doodles, VENN diagrams, and visual collages of your professional identity.
I these and I save them in a private folder. (Someday, I'd love to ask if I can share them with the world).
If you create something, please share your professional identity drawings with me [reply to this email]. I'd love to see it.
Watch this to be inspired: Why Drawing Helps You Think
2. Use metaphors to help you explain who you really are in your work: Ask yourself, what metaphor describes me and the way I do what I do? Why did I chose that metaphor?
Then, how could you illustrate that metaphor? Go for it!
3. Practice getting granular and detailed about who you are in your work in a stream of consciousness writing in your journal: Harvard psychologist Susan Davids said the following about emotional granularity, but I believe the same holds true for labeling our true professional identity:
"Learning to label emotions with more nuanced vocabulary can be absolutely transformative." - Susan Davids
FINAL THOUGHT
Language is our portal to meaning making and connection.
When we don't have language to talk about who we really are, our ability for others to make sense of us is severely limited.
Without accurate language, we don't connect as fully, productively, or healthily as we yearn to.
Naming our professional identity doesn't just give us our power, it gives us the power to build understanding with people who don't get us.