As you know (or will come to), I am a lover of luxury. So in an early morning impassioned pursuit of a 2.55 Reissue (Large or Jumbo? That is the question...), I stumbled upon and fell instantaneously in like with the calm and clairvoyance of Joanna, a lifestyle blogger who works full-time as a senior management consultant.
What I love about the blogger in this video is her measured appraisal of herself. She seems to have mastered the perspective of the objective observer, and as a result is able to give herself credit for clear successes (like a really prestigious educational pedigree, natural smarts and a successful career), while being real with herself about the nature of her abilities and proclivities, which allows her to actively order her career in a way that maximizes "flow" (more on this later).
This view of self, which she expresses with an elegance that hints of effortlessness, is actually really tough for most of us to master, because we tend to paint ourselves in exaggerated strokes. I recently saw a Facebook post from a super successful, calculated risk-taking, overall kick-ass female entrepreneur friend that totally called out the false dichotomy often dictated by my own mind:
"Note to self: You are neither God nor trash."
I don't think I'm alone when I admit that I often cast myself only in the extreme roles of a supreme being (misunderstood by the masses, obvi) or a total degenerate, with scene switches occurring at a moment's notice. Neither of these descriptions are fair to me (or to anyone, really), but human thoughts and their tendency to mount into a crescendo of criticism lead us down this path.
But Joanna seems to speak from a place distant from the cacophony of everyday mind chatter. From that space, she shares some really incredible insights. It's worth the 15 minutes!