Through My Work
I have been exploring the nature of my work and trying to shove myself into a career, a massive injury to my Being. Whenever I try to label myself, or make myself available to only one occupation, I feel as though I am cutting pieces of my self. This is not good.
But at the end of the day, one must have a field they are occupied by. One they think is their life’s work. This obsession with making or being better at something. This could be a skill, a mindset, or creating systems. Finding that takes time. That is why I am writing this.
I am writing this to find a way to define my work. Not work in an occupational sense. The kind of work one does to respond to the “What do you do for a living?” question people ask to devise the kind of respect, and extent of transactional relationship they want to build with you.
No, not that.
I am talking about the kind of work I am here to do. The kind of work that, as I practice doing more and more of it, overflows to parts and aspect of my life. The kind of work that elevates others. The kind of work that moves beyond a title. Work that I love doing no matter when or where I am.
I have struggled to define that work. Only because I have been looking at it from the angle of a single title or skill. “I am a brand consultant”. “I am a data analyst”. While making it easier for others to understand me, it is highly exclusionary. Whatever words or phrases that follow “I am” exclude the existence of all the others. It does help make it easier for others to understand me. But this exercise is for me to cultivate an unfragmented view of My Work.
The work I do must be valuable to others in some way. There must be a way I serve others. When others interact with me or my work – in its various forms, my work ranges from visual art, to writings like these, to website design, UX Design, audience building, data analysis, product and app reviews, mentorship, and their likes – there must be some result they should get.
The work should always stimulate minds, strike emotional chords in a profound way. Others expect to experience deep emotional intimacy that moves beyond understanding. Expect the work to bring its audience back to itself, asking “What do I do?”. Through personal stories, anecdotes, and thought provoked, deep emotional intimacies formed will bring the observer right back to itself. In facing oneself, one is brought to a place of complete honesty, of catharsis, of experiencing a destruction of self.
That was intense, I know. And I am not there yet with any of my work. It is helpful for the exercise to talk about my work in its ultimate form.
My work solves the lack of critical thinking. It is for those who have been questioning themselves and their world(s) but did not have the time, hope or voice to answer some of them. My work brings clarity in a more contextual understanding of oneself. A clear awareness of who one is, while always knowing that one is not alone.
This brings a sort of relief, a relaxation, a level of peace from which one can rebuild themselves.
My work, by being a personal illustration of my journey, helps bring a sense of relief and peace from which one can rebuild themselves.
This means my work begins with the work I do on myself. I’d like to share bits and pieces of myself, expressed in contextually relevant ways, in the hopes to bring you, dear audience, a sense of belonging.
This exercise is not over. Barely even scratched the surface. I want to present the how of this exercise. How do I do my work? In what ways is it manifesting? What have I done till now?
These questions demand another writing, but for now, this shall suffice.