Last night Isobel and I were talking about my comfort with public speaking.
We’re in the living room. She’s sitting next to me and, referencing my keynote from over the weekend, is very kindly complimenting how natural I seem on stage. Even if I feel nervous on the inside, she says, it doesn’t look that way. Which means something’s working with how I’ve been preparing.
Anyway, I lean back and cross my left foot over my right on the coffee table, even though my mom always hated that. Looking over at Isobel, I find myself saying how much I like being on stage. Ironically, it’s sort of always felt like one of the only places I don’t have to defend my thinking. Instead, I feel like I can just... be. Same with writing. I mean, they feel like that now, but each took a shit-ton of practice to get comfortable saying things I believe without bracing for possible rebukes.
Learning to express myself freely has been a total, unrelenting slog.
In that keynote I gave, I told a story about a time I felt like I botched things pretty massively when I failed to stop a fight I could’ve prevented (I’ve also written about it). It felt like failure to me because I hadn’t acted in the way I wanted to, but in the way I thought would perform best, socially. I abandoned my morals to save myself at the expense of someone else.
Today I revisited a podcast that I actually listened to not all that long ago.
Ok fine, it was pretty recently...
In doing so I discovered something I wish I’d understood in high school, college, and even into my twenties: a quote from Adam Grant.
“An easy way to pick the wrong career is to put your image above your interests.
Because meaningful work isn’t about impressing others…
It’s about expressing your values.”
I mean... right?
That would’ve been so helpful back then.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
283/365
Do you know what you value? When challenged by something, or someone, how do you respond?
onward.
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