Staying on Brand

 NOTE: This is copied and pasted from my personal journal. I'm just allowing you to eavesdrop in the hopes that you might learn something and grow yourself as I have over the past twenty-four hours.

January 8, 2021 (Friday)

I decided that the blog I wrote yesterday was off-brand, so I unpublished it and deleted the links to it that I had placed on Facebook and Instagram. It was cathartic to write it because I said things and used a tone that I would never have used face-to-face, but I should have stopped there. My cousin in Houston, a Trump supporter, privately messaged me after she started reading it and accused me of Trump-bashing. I don’t see calling out bullshit and speaking truth to power as bashing, but if I had gone about it in a more rational and thoughtful way, I’m convinced my words would have been more effective and I wouldn't have come across in such a self-righteous tone.

I need to think more like a Vulcan when I write while in an emotional state, and not like a battle-crazed, blood-seeking Klingon. LOL

This does make me think, though, about my brand and what I want it to be. I have my professional brand as a career counselor and educator, communicated primarily on LinkedIn and in my day-to-day work. But what about in other social media channels and social settings? What do I want my brand to be? How do I want to be known? Here’s a brainstorming list (because I like making bullet point lists):

• A progressive Christian with a universalist theology
• A middle-aged white man who is making sincere efforts to grow beyond his small-town central Texas upbringing when it comes to all issues of social justice
• A creative person who gets “in the zone” when he uses technology to make multimedia products like photos, videos, slide shows, and so on
• A performer who enjoys acting, singing, reading aloud, or any type of audience entertainment
• A citizen who votes with social, environmental, and economic justice always at top priority
• A lifelong learner, always willing to challenge his own assumptions with data-driven evidence paired with authentic stories of other people’s experiences
• A world traveler interested in the real lives of the people in the places he visits
• A citizen of planet Earth who thinks globally but acts locally
• A good husband and doggie-daddy
• A person who thinks before he speaks (or writes), then isn’t afraid to call out bullshit and speak truth to power, even if it means pissing people off whom he cares about very much

None of the items on this list have been fulfilled one hundred percent yet, and I doubt any of them will ever be completely fulfilled because as long as I have life, I will continue to grow and develop. If I am allowed to become an ancient old man, I pray that to my dying day I am learning something new about myself that will help me grow and become a better human being.

Sometimes we have to make mistakes—like posting blogs while in an emotional state—in order to learn. In fact, I think the primary way we learn is by making mistakes and then reflecting on what we did wrong, then trying again. Becoming is a lifelong iterative process, just like in Design Thinking. I’m trying to design myself, so why not apply that process in this context:

1.     Empathize – in this case, I empathize with myself in order to better understand the dissonance I’m feeling that stimulates me to grow and change
2.       Define – I reflect on the thoughts and emotions that came while empathizing with myself and clarify which problem or issue I most need to focus on at the moment
3.       Ideate – I brainstorm ways in which I might grow, develop, and change for the better: a class, a book, counseling, starting a new good habit or stopping a bad one, and so on. No idea is unworthy of consideration, no matter how outlandish it may seem at the time because it could connect to a solution that’s actually achievable and realistic.
4.      Prototype – this is the action stage of the process. Whatever solution I’ve identified in the previous stage is put into practice. I buy a book, I enroll in a class, I schedule a counseling appointment, or—as I am doing at the moment—I write a blog.
5.      Test – this is the evaluative stage. After some time spent prototyping, I reflect on my experience and determine whether I need to empathize and define a new problem to address or return to one of the previous stages and reiterate a different solution to the original problem.

The Design Thinking process is an endless cycle, or at least it should be, because I will always have something to work on. I’m a complex human. I’m imperfect. Things push my emotional triggers and I react. And since I’m not the type of person to react verbally or physically, I react in writing. But I’m learning the value of hitting pause, reflecting, choosing my words wisely, and forming a response that has a developmental and transformative purpose both for me and for my audience.

Proverbs 27:17 states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man [sic] sharpens another.” And as usually happens when iron sharpens iron, sparks fly. The end result, though, is both pieces of iron are better than they were before. Cousin in Houston, if you’re reading this, know that you were that other piece of iron for me. You helped me learn the value of choosing my words and tone more carefully, and I hope I helped you learn something about yourself that helps you become a better you.