My mom use to comment that I liked to put everything into a box. From tasks to relationships, “Michele’s World” was a tidy place when everything was in its place. This little puppetmaster routine manifested itself in a variety of ways throughout my life – from not letting my friend groups blend to making sure I acted a certain way, for certain occasions.
The lesson my mom tried to instill, but which I was too stubborn to accept is that this way of living is 1) too tiring and 2) completely artificial.
When I started writing on this blog, I had intentions to do so from a purely anonymous perspective. The purpose was to share my sometimes comical, often snarky experiences at work. Within two weeks, I knew that anonymity wasn’t going to fit the bill nor was just writing about work. I needed to blend the boxes.
Over the past month, I’ve been struggling with how to better blend my personal and professional. I gave a talk last month on why we need to remove the curtain in social media – i.e. be yourself (oneself) and stop acting like the Wizard of Oz. Ironically (and I confessed this at the talk), I’ve built two blogs this year: one personal and one professional all in the pursuit of being a different version of myself for different audiences. And guess what, mom was right – it’s too tiring and completely artificial.
What makes me chuckle a bit is that as I embark on this “blending” challenge, the arrival of Google+ actually reinforces that blending isn’t natural — that we need to box things or rather “circle” them. Google+ is now enabling my puppetmaster tendencies with their new technology. For the first time, I’m looking at the mess and chaos of Facebook and thinking, “wow, that’s exactly right.”
My plan over the next little while is to find a way to merge it all together. Undoubtedly, its going to be messy. Boxes and circles be damned.
Boxes & Circles: Breaking My Puppetmaster Behavior
