Who is your Work Self vs. your True Self?
One common conversation I have been having lately with clients and friends is about our work selves versus our true selves. Previous generations (our ancestors) often put a lot of emphasis, pride, and importance on the vocation or job identity they held. You can still see this phenomenon in the last names of many people such as Archer, Barber, Bowman, Brewer, Butler, Carpenter, Carver, Cook, Draper, Farmer, Fisher, Forester, Fowler, Gardener, Hunter, Mason, Miller, Piper, Potter, Sadler, Sheppard, Shoemaker, Skinner, Smith, Tanner, Taylor, Weaver and Wheeler.
Even recent generations tied a person’s identity very closely to their occupation. Imagine a dinner party where you are invited to introduce yourself to everyone and tell them something about you. What do you bring up? Most people in the past would mention their job. That job was basically what your life was mostly about, or at least what society thought your life should mostly be about.
Flash forward to more recent times, such as the 80’s through 90’s, and you would hear a lot of people introduce themselves with their identities either tied to a vocation and/or tied to an activity, sport, or family role that they do outside of work. Nowadays you will hear both of those identities possibly expressed but also a wide variety of different identities and descriptors.
Who do you identify as primarily?
Work-Self vs. True-Self
Although no identities or answers are necessarily wrong, the conversations that I have been having with clients and friends as of late contain a lot of frustration from people feeling like others only view them as a profession. I admit, I sometimes get frustrated when people seem to think that I am just a massage therapist or that my entire world revolves around my profession and business.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my work, like really love my work. I have the great opportunity every day to help my fellow humans work toward feeling better and connecting their brains into their bodies in healing ways. This profession is a blessing and comes with a lot of reward. However, I would be lying if I said that my true-self is simply a massage therapist or that all my ambitions lie in this one area.
Our True-Selves Are Usually More Well-Rounded Than Others Suspect
Our true selves are composed of many facets of our lives and the one I want to highlight in this blog is our hobbies or interests that exist outside of our professions. For example, one of my passions is and always has been camping, recreating outdoors, and connecting with nature. In fact, before I decided to go the massage therapy route I had held many jobs with federal agencies, outdoor recreation entities, and was even pursuing a degree in recreation resources. I spent a lot of my time in the great outdoors, camping, hiking, around campfires, backpacking, and doing a thousand other things tied to nature and helping others experience it. In fact, twelve years of my life were dedicated to trying to get paid for playing in the outdoors.
This passion for the great outdoors did not die when I became a massage therapist. In fact, when I am getting burned out from working hard and find myself with some time off, I relish in being able to go camping or grounding and reconnecting with nature and forests. I find myself being able to reset and remember who I truly am when I get dirt on my clothes and skin. There are many times when I have enjoyed rain storms by dancing around in them.
Dedicating some of my time and energy to my other passions helps me to be a better massage therapist and allows me the opportunity to grow and share new experiences with others. Our true-self often needs to be balanced by spending time on our hobbies.
Making Space For Your “Other” Passions and Interests
As admirable and often necessary the day-to-day hustle of our professions can be, it is also equally important not to neglect our hobbies and those things that fulfill or balance our lives out.
Do you have a hobby or side-gig that ignites your fires? Do you give enough attention and time to the hobbies and activities that add color, passion, and peace to your life? Do you ever feel like work is getting mundane or simply overwhelming? If the latter is the case, then you may want to purposefully dedicate some of your time and effort into a current or new hobby or endeavor.
Our true self needs to be allowed to express itself. If all we show other people is just our work-self then we can start to feel like people only like us because of our professions and that they don’t like us because of who we truly are. We must all work toward acknowledging the many different parts of ourselves. Our “other” activities are one way that we can dedicate some time and energy to the aspects of ourselves that don’t get a chance to be expressed while working.
Audit Yourself
My advice is to audit yourself. How are you spending your time? Are all aspects of you getting time to express themselves? If so, great! If not, what are some things you can incorporate into your life which will help to add variety, balance, and satisfaction?
I look forward to chatting with you about this topic and also to hear what other hobbies, side-gigs, passions, and interests you each have. Feel free to bring up this topic in your next session and we will likely surprise each other with the variety of talents, interests, and crazy things we have done or experienced in our previous lives!
