Personal and Professional - Finding the Balance

For some time now, I've struggled with the notion of building a professional profile alongside my personal explorations. The more I put myself out there into the blogosphere, the twitterverse, and other online spaces, the more connections I make with people from all over the world, in a variety of social spheres. The outreach is so vast and varied, sometimes it makes me dizzy, but at the same time, it is thrilling.

I have to be careful I don't lose my balance. The other day, I got so carried away with all of my connecting, I ended up feeling lost and completely off center by the end of the day. I had gotten so swept away by all of the reaching out, I lost track of what I was bringing to the table, myself. I ended the day feeling empty and uncertain - NOT good feelings to have either as a foundation for confidence or self-esteem, or as the basis for creating fruitful dialogues with others. The next day I took a complete break from all social networks, and focused instead on being the best salesperson and business developer I could (i.e. focused on the day job). I found it completely rewarding to be applying myself fully to that for which I get paid. Doing a good job is in and of itself a gratifying activity. I forget that sometimes, so it was nice to be reminded...

I crave authenticity in everything I do. To be fully present in all of my activities - that is my goal. It seems the more of myself I bring to my work, the better I do, and the more gratifying are all of my interactions. That being said, I still feel a certain reticence to completely promote this blog. Somehow I can't see inserting keywords into my short stories, or thinking about SEO when I'm posting my poems. I guess my readership will just have to grow slowly as I go along. Develop naturally along the way. I want to share my work, but I'm still a little afraid of sharing all of these personal parts of myself with the people I'm communicating with for business.

I suppose things will get really interesting when I publish my first book. My writing is so personal. When it goes public, I'll have finally bridged the gap. That is going to be something...