On Doing
What do you do?
These four syllables are heavy lifters, carrying a lot more weight their eleven letters may lead you to believe.
What is the standard structure of an outline containing one’s entire repertoire of hopes, dreams, doubts, fears, visions, and goals? If anyone has a template please send my way. I am in search of one that helps others comprehend what it is I am trying to do in order to create who I want to become. Because the ultimate goal is being able to ctrl + c and ctrl + v the same response for ”what do you do” into the comment box for “who are you” right?
What happens when you confine yourself into an overly edited one sentence response, solely for the benefit of others to better understand, is that you begin to automatically share it with anyone who asks. Which is almost everyone. After a certain amount of repetitions you begin to convince yourself of it too. I have decided to liberate myself from the obligation I feel when asked that question. It would be counterproductive to go back and set boundaries around what I hope to accomplish for the sake of me making my ambitions easily digestible by others.
Putting on my “other side” glasses for a minute here, what does questioner intend to do with the information given? How does learning what someone “does” change your opinion of them? Do you neatly give them a tab and file them away with the other similar doers? That’s okay if the answer is yes because that is often how my brain likes to function. Creating a filing system of sorts to feel like I have a better understanding of how this person will fit into my life, what I can do for them and what they can do for me. That is the work of my ego doing it’s job. I think it’s acceptable to have a little bit of that for protection. However, we must recognize like any system it has it’s flaws. By rushing to categorize people and place our preconceived judgements on them because they’re in the same file as so and so who once did this to us is a disservice to both questioner and the questioned. We then lose the magical opportunity to get to know someone for their whole, complicated , and beautiful self.
Okay Bri we get it, you don’t like the question. Noted. But, what is it that you do or are at least hoping to do?
The honest answer is I do a lot, and depending when you ask the answers may vary. If it’s consistency you’re looking for I can tell you why I do it. What ignites the flame that propels me forward. Connection. Connecting with other people and contributing the knowledge I have gained from my own personal experiences to their personal health and wellness journeys. As I begin, my focus is on the physical movement (and stillness) aspect- yoga, personal training, and meditation. At least that’s what is says on my business cards (which I am deeply proud of by what way- physical evidence that what I am doing is real how exciting) but in reality it is beyond that. Let’s get tea and discuss more details some time soon.
I will leave you with a haiku for to summarize my feelings on this subject:
“So, what do you?”
“Well, that depends when you ask”
And then, life went on.
Xo,
Bri
“No Uncle Teddy, who you are defines what you do”
