Declare Yourself

When someone asks, “What do you do?” – do you find yourself stumbling to answer? Not because you don’t know, but because you’re afraid to own it?

Because the idea of declaring yourself as “something” – a writer, an entrepreneur, a speaker – makes it all the more real. It puts a label on your work, your hobby, your passions, that sometimes seem impossible to live up to.

You’re afraid, we all are, at times – of giving ourselves a title – one that hasn’t been printed on a business card by HR, but rather, one we must come up with on our own. We wonder if it’s good enough. We wonder if it’s “real”. We wonder what other people will think.

On the golf course this weekend, I was paired up with someone who asked what I did. I told him I worked in branding, marketing, and design. Then he asked, “Who do you work for” – to which I hesitated a bit, as I almost always do – and replied with, “Myself. I own my own company”. 

I know where the hesitation comes from. It comes from still being young, and still learning to embrace entrepreneurship and business ownership as who I am, not simply something I do. It’s because, in my mind, even now, I haven’t fully declared that I am an entrepreneur.

Jeff Goins wrote yesterday asking his readers and fellow bloggers to do one thing: Declare you’re a writer.

Today I’m asking you to declare, to the world, whatever it is you do and whoever it is you are. A writer, an entrepreneur, a golfer, a basket-weaver.

Declare it to the people who matter most – who may understand or second-guess who you are and what you want to be.

Declare it to complete strangers, boldly and with confidence and conviction. Write about it. Tweet about it. Hold up the line and talk to the barista at the coffee shop about it.

Let today be the first big step you’ve been hesitant to take toward embracing who you really are.

In the comments below, make your declaration. Say, “I am a ____________” – and mean it. Own it. Live it.

Then go share it with the world.

(Photo credit)