By: Revanche

Just a little (link) love: Being Awesome

April 23, 2014

LinkLive

I used to suffer from a fair amount of self doubt, in small part because we all have some bit of insecurity about something, and in large part fueled by working for people who were completely unprofessional, sexist, played arbitrary favorites, were insecure and took that out on their staff, and totally out of touch with reality.

You know that twinge people normally get when they’re summoned by their boss?  I don’t get that anymore. My first response used to be “what’d I do?”  And it was never ever something I did wrong. It was always something normal like asking for an update on something they were thinking about, or asking if I could take something on, or sharing some information I’d need for some project. Totally normal stuff but for years my first reaction was to assume I was being called onto the carpet for things that were out of my control or stuff that someone else did wrong that I had to take the fall for, and then fix. That’s the kind of people I worked for.

It took some years to realize that in fact, I’m pretty awesome at my job because I know what I know and what I have to learn and when to admit I don’t know how to do something. And then I lucked into a wonderful working relationship with people who recognized and valued my talent and my ego grew to the size of Montana.

No, wait, that was my self confidence.  Know what? Feels pretty good. I may suck at being healthy, being mobile, and LIFE but this I can still do.

And recently, one of the many people I’ve worked with gave an interview naming me as an awesome person to work with – and I hadn’t done anything “special” for ’em. Just did my usual bang-up job. That felt pretty good too. That’s been filed in my “Yay me” inbox.

We should acknowledge our awesome more often: our own and that of others. It’s good for the soul. So tell me true: what about you? How are you awesome?

MONEY

Travel snobbery from NZ Muse. I feel the same way about a lot of things. I think there’s a difference between exercising your own judgement vs. imposing those on other people.

Nicole and Maggie say big change can be ok, too.  Totally agree and am always really happy for friends who recognize it and make it happen like Cloud, resigning from a job that was no longer a good fit. I’m all about making the money you need to live on, but there’s not much point in breaking yourself to earn that money. Sure, it’s easier said than done but many of us have done it and lived to tell the tale. It’s good. Big changes you need are good.

GEEK THINGS

Having just watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I promptly had to revel in Anthony Mackie interviews because I love him. [here]

Need this shirt.

NEAT THINGS

I took an online course once, “Insects and Civilization” which was basically a class on how bugs live, how they thrive and sometimes most importantly, how to make them go away. Octopus Gallery’s Bees Edition reminded me of my favorite part of that class: the awesome beekeeping set-up.

I cannot be the only one who didn’t think the tree should have said this much earlier.

Game of Thrones spoiler below, if you haven’t read the books and aren’t caught up on the show: Skip the next paragraph.

There’s an awful lot of hubbub around the director of GoT saying that the Jaime/Cersei scene was rape, but then says it turned consensual. I can’t really wrap my head around that but it’s one of those things I think shouldn’t have to be said: rape is wrong. Murder is wrong. Torture is wrong. Just because it’s part of the GoT reality and landscape doesn’t make adding gratuitous rape scenes ok (even if you’re just talking about what it does to the story, it’s bad) and saying that it’s not rape because well, whatever, is a gross disservice to the reality that we do live in where people seem to think redefining forced sex as not rape is ok.  It’s NOT. And I will have Bo Burnham’s lyrics in my head forever:

You shouldn’t abstain from rape just because you think that I want you to.
You shouldn’t rape because rape is a fucked up thing to do.
Pretty obvious, just don’t fuckin rape people, didn’t think I had to write that one down for you.

LIFE THINGS

The epitome of Monday which generally just needs to be over to be better. (Sorry, Lauren)

HufflePup has opinions.

Maggie Mason on grieving in this day and age.

I had one of those pigs, I think. Or was it a kitten?

I watched this five times.

6 Responses to “Just a little (link) love: Being Awesome”

  1. Staci says:

    Isn’t Anthony Mackie crazy amazing?! And being in the same room with him is very surreal and hilarious at the same time. Thanks for including my interview with him! Great post. 🙂
    Staci recently posted…10 Ways to Romance Your HusbandMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      It was total confirmation bias that I went hunting for after the movie but I still love him for the things I’ve heard him say in interviews. <3 Thanks for sharing the interview!

  2. NZ Muse says:

    That GoT scene – worst. I can’t even think about it without getting upset.

    I feel the same about being called up by bosses. I don’t have any excuse though, I just don’t know how I developed this terrible and insecure habit. Getting better at it now though.
    NZ Muse recently posted…Quintessentially NZ things I still haven’t doneMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      Yep I don’t even want to watch it. I read it from the book version and that was bad enough.
      Honestly I don’t think people specifically need a reason to feel nervy about being called up by the boss, it’s a natural enough instinct to begin with. It gets worse if you work for people who routinely call you out negatively, of course.

  3. Athena says:

    I don’t watch GoT but my new guy does and he’s always talking about it. Perhaps I should give it a try and see what it’s all about? 🙂

    What makes me awesome? I know you aren’t suppose to define yourself by your job but I love what I do so much. It’s hard working with disadvantage youth and being there but I think the fact that I have the mindset and emotional strength makes me awesome. Also, I rap like a bad ass!

    • Revanche says:

      Hehe I read the books so I refuse to watch the show because it stresses me out but it IS good storytelling. Except the occasional decision I don’t agree with, obviously.

      You ARE awesome for what you do professionally! It’s not who you are but who you are absolutely informs your work <3

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