THE POWER OF NAVIGATING YOUR OWN NARRATIVE

How do you want to show up in your life? What is your brand? How do you want to make people feel? Whatever path you choose, there is power in navigating your own narrative. I’ve found life challenging during certain periods of my professional life. After learning and self-reflection, I realize life is what I make of it. This is about me, and your life can be about you.

How People See You

People wanted to make me the arts education lady, but I knew I wanted to be bigger than that. I want to be the executive of an organization. I want to be more than the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lady. Maybe, just maybe, I want to be a leader in financials, but others don’t see me in that role. I’ve been put in these spots and none of them felt right to me. 

Through my journey, I realize people by pure habit of regiment want to see me through one lens, and I am not alone in feeling this way. In this article, I write about finding your own path; and it’s not necessarily the same as how others see you. And that’s just fine. 

We all start in a place where we have put ourselves or where our parents or teachers saw us excelling, but there’s more to finding our way than just where we excel. Over the years, I’ve moved to a space where my skills and experience, along with education, excel. In navigating my own narrative, I’ve been able to create a brand that is really ME. And you can too.

Power of YOU

When it comes to finding who you truly are and where you want to go takes self-reflection.

Think about where you are today. Is this where you want to be? Is this how you want to show up
in your life? There’s a good chance you have hopes and dreams of creating an amazing,
fulfilling life for yourself. Journaling has helped me find myself and realize how my experiences
have shaped who I am and who I want to be. Find what works for you.

Then ask yourself what steps you need to take to get you from where you are today to where
you want to be. You may already have skills you need and can look for people and resources to
support future growth.

Resources like Gallup’s StrengthsFinder or The Self-Aware Leader helped me figure out my
core competencies and can help you find your assets as well.

Navigating Your Own Narrative

Navigating your own narrative is about how you capitalize on your assets to create the life of your dreams. It’s not about how others view you. 

I was talking to a friend who said her family called her bossy when she was growing up. As she navigated her own narrative, she realized she wasn’t bossy. She is a leader who now has her own thriving business. She learned to channel what others saw as a negative in being bossy into being a thought leader in her field by asking herself where she wanted to be. Then she created that life. 

This is just a small example of what can happen to you as well.

I am a leader who inspires others to do great work. I can do this in an individual way but what really lights my soul is encouraging communities and nonprofits to reach their full potential.

I am in arts and culture. I am in education and data. I am also a nonprofit leader, speaker, and writer. That may sound like I am a jill of all trades and master of none, but it isn’t. What I’ve done is capitalize on my talents and experience to create a brand that lights my soul and creates change in communities. 

In my experience, what matters isn’t how other people see you, but how we see ourselves. How can we take inventory of our experiences and craft them into the life we desire? The real power of navigating your own narrative is that it is YOURS to create.