November 15, 2005
Am I sociable?
So my wife turns around to me yesterday and says, "You are sociable! You just pretend not to be!" The startling thing about this revelation is that I guess she is correct - I want to be sociable. There is a 'but' though, in that when I get into a sociable location I often find the 'shy' gene controlling my behaviour. This is a big hurdle when it comes to doing the networking thing in person. For some reason my abilty to hold conversations with people I haven't met before fails. Perhaps a better way of viewing it is that this skill (?) becomes frozen and takes long while to thaw out. Blogging has helped in a networking respect because it allows me to make new friends by engaging in conversations prior to meeting them in person.
By a very subtle (if you can spot it let me know) connection, I managed to finish reading Jory Des Jardin's chapter in MooreSpace on Authenticity. Beautifully written and for some reason I wanted to give her a hug too, which you will understand if you read the chapter.
I liked this:
I didn’t suddenly decide one day to be authentic. I had simply given up my need to be “on,” to sell myself. If I went to my computer feeling gross, then goshdarnit, I’d let the scant few who happened to bump into my blog know it. Instead of trying to produce content, I simply translated the thoughts, the impulses that were already there. Initially this was a painful process; I would question myself, “Did I actually have that thought, or was that thought thunk in an attempt to be authentic?” But the more I wrote, the less I cared. The Web suddenly became a transparent medium through which the contents in my brain—the chatter, the anxieties, and, lo and behold, the opinions were transmitted, intact. It was around this time that I generated readers, not just traffic.
Tell it like it is, don't pretend, don't lie - just explain. Wish I could more, maybe that's the connection with being sociable?BTW Johnnie likes this chapter too.
Posted by Paul Goodison at November 15, 2005 03:07 PM | TrackBack
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