My new-fave ways to introduce myself now that I *am* a shiftless, unemployed loser with no direction are:

1. “I’m the communicatrix.”
2. “I fart around on the internet.”

Trust me, when delivered with enough conviction, they are 10x more interesting and useful than pretty much anything but “I’m an FBI profiler” or “I rob banks.”

Nathan - Love War of Art, which I first heard of via Merlin Mann. And I’m linking that up b/c brother, there is so much rich info in that one post of Merlin’s—a video podcast interview with internet-famous poster child Jonathan Coulton, links to the David, etc—you don’t wanna miss it.

In other news, I’d drawn pretty much the exact same comparison b/w Cameron and Pressfield in my original post on the topic. (Which, I’ll pause briefly to point out, as I’m shameless, Steven Pressfield himself commented on! Go, Steven!!) Each is great for different stuff; I think that Cameron’s is more yin or yang or whichever the feminine is. Always get them mixed up.

Jean - So you know whereof I speak, eh? :-) I swear, I could not write anything useful at all outside of those stupid ads while I was a copywriter. (And I stopped again after getting kicked to the curb by the Groundlings, but that’s another story.)

Congrats on your bold move. Looks great, and the content could not be more needed these days.

It’s just so hard to not do what’s expected, what your family or circle demands.

It’s like the Artists’ Way, but I like The War of Art by Steven Pressfield even more (you can read samples on GoogleBooks). It’s less process-y and more “get off your butt already”. I don’t want to give too much away, but Pressfield bounced back from writing “King Kong Lives”. Yeah.

As usual, totally clear and engaging writing on your topic. Love it! This seems like such an easy concept, but as you described it truly isn’t. Sometimes it feels like each pesky, stuckified belief is attached to my brain like a column of the golden gate bridge … cemented in concrete, and designed to withstand tremendous winds.

I also found it kind of fascinating that you wrote about this today when the topic of my post on another blog was exactly that … the “have to” vs. “choose.” Then you used a bear metaphor, and that is the image I started the post with. Creepy chills! Then you mentioned introducing yourself at a cocktail party in the “in-between” stage. I have a post for that too!

I swear I am not trying to be a sneaky “I’ll pretend to comment on your blog while really linking to my shit” visitor, but you really must read these to see how we are practically ready for Sylvia Brown’s show.

Wait — it must be a Virgo thing. I was born 8/28. I rest my case.

have to vs choose post: http://marthabeck.com/blog/?p=65
how to introduce yourself post: http://tinyurl.com/3syqsa

:)
-Pam

I’ve written all the way through, although it’s gone underground from time to time—to letters and emails only, during the worst of it.

Writing and talking and coming up with creative ideas makes me happy. So that’s what I’m doing. People are starting to be drawn to me for “just” doing those things. We’ll see where it leads.

The mention of commentator Earl was especially interesting, and the wonderful awareness that you pointed out — smart enough to know he’d sound ungrateful, but not sure what else he could do — raises another point, if you don’t mind: if ya ain’t loving it, ya ain’t as great at it as you could be.

None of us are ever as magnificent at our work as are / could be if we were in love with it. If he’s lost the love, he should start experimenting with what will make him happy, and invent a living from it. There’s probably a book by this title that I haven’t read, but Mom said ‘do what you love and the money will find you” — but the key is doing it in that order. Rather than pre-judge that there will or won’t be riches in a new passion, or that you could or couldn’t get a gig you’d love, just do the thing you love. Interestingly, the money does find you.

Smarter folks than me say to think back to the time in your life — as far back as needed — when you were happiest. And then look at how you filled your time then. Backpacking Europe? High school play? Fixing cars with Dad? Don’t think and dismiss with “travel agent - yuck; public school teacher - nope; mechanic - no thanks.”
Inventive versions include Travel Show Host; Local Theater Producer; Collectible Cars Broker… look for the equivalent now and see if it makes you happy. Because we we’re doing what we love, what we’d do for free because it’s so fulfilling — like how you feel about Communicatrix — that’s when we rise to our potential and break through the noise and people are drawn to us and they pay handsomely for our talents, skills, and passion…

Anyway, that’s what I got reminded of by your edutaining post — thanks.

Or so they tell me.