Me, My Voice and I...

"If you feel you are not strong enough to let your creative voice become heard, start with a whisper. Your voice will come." (anonymous, n.d.)

Coming to terms with the potential benefits of blogging in both my professional life and as a masters student has revealed exciting opportunities. Unfortunately, it has not eliminated my fear of self-expression in an online public forum. I have spent the last week reflecting on this fear and have come to the understanding that it is based in letting go of control of my thoughts and ideas.  I have never thought of myself as someone who values control, as the path in my life has been chaotic: bouncing between countries, owning/operating an adventure travel company, divorce, retirement, and piecing together part-time work to create full time employment.  Expressing myself in an online public space requires acceptance of letting go of control over the ideas I put forth. I can control their original composition in creating the post, but once posted the ideas are open to interpretation and can take on a life of their own. Will my post be interpreted the way it was intended? What if I make a mistake? These are the types of questions that I ask myself. Heide Estes (2012), in her article Blogging and Academic Identity, states that we need to be willing to make mistakes, because "thinking on the fly inevitably involves screwing up". Apparently, making mistakes is difficult for someone with control issues to accept.

So how do I find my voice while, at the same time, learn to let go of my need for control? Maybe the answer lies in developing a public persona; a voice that is my own yet different from my natural personality. This is a potential solution suggested by Estes when she states "identities performed within the context of blogs may be in line with the blogger’s professional identity, or may oppose, contrast, challenge, or supplement it" (Estes, 2012). It is my voice, yet it is modified to match my audience and the information that I want to share...while at the same time protecting my inner-self. So, if my voice makes a mistake... that's ok! If comments and challenges posted to my blog get personal or I loose control of the content... that's ok too!

But I still come back to the question of how do I find and/or develop my public voice? Dr. Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, defines one's voice as "the overlapping of the four parts of our nature: our body, our mind, our heart, and our spirit" (Covey, 2008). Dr. Covey proposes four questions to ask yourself to help you find this voice or inner-calling:

1. What are you good at? That's your mind.
2. What do you love doing? That's your heart.
3. What need can you serve? That's the body.
4. And finally, what is life asking of you? What gives your life meaning and purpose? What do you feel like you should be doing? In short, what is your conscience directing you to do? That is your spirit (Covey, 2008).

These are all excellent questions that I will be spending the next week reflecting upon. I believe that they will help me to more fully understand my voice, which in turn will allow me to decide whether my public voice will support, contrast or challenge it.  It will allow me to remain true to myself  yet find a way to merge my voice with my academic public persona. I'm curious to see "who" this voice will be!

References:

Bette George & Associates Inc. (2006). Finding your voice [image]. Retrieved from  http://www.bettegeorge.com/enov06.html 

Covey, S. (2008). The four steps to finding your voice [blog]. Retrieved from http://www.stephencovey.com/blog/?p=16

Estes, H. (2012). Blogging and academic identity. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/doi/10.1111/lic3.12017/full

The IAMTHELAB Printshop. (n.d.), Find your voice [image of quote]. Retrieved from http://iamthelab.getshopflow.com/product/labquotesoo1findyourvoice