Intro into my hat-series
About all the hats I’m wearing in my life
I always disliked labels, I still do. I don’t like to be put in boxes & I try my best to avoid putting other people or myself in boxes.
At the same time, I am well aware that there are certain categories that exist, some of them I fall into as well, and I decided that it’s pointless to fight those categories, cos they are nothing bad per se.
I think it’s critical how we relate to them, how much importance we put on them and how strongly we identify with them that makes the whole difference. Also, if we use them as excuses, I don’t feel it’s a healthy way to approach them either.
The best way for me to deal with categories and boxes is, with a bit of humor, taking away their seriousness and just simply describe my experiences around those categories, so I decided to set up a little series about them all here.
During the time I was in a startup incubator, I met with many job coaches and professionals and one of the ladies used a perfect analogy describing what it means to have your own company: “You are wearing many different hats at once: you are the founder, the CEO, you are the scientist, the artist, the illustrator, the marketing person, the sales person, you do the bookkeeping and the billing and have plenty of more hats. It’s just important to know which one to wear when & then you will be fine.”
I loved this metaphor, because to me it basically represented life & described my business and me as a living organism, which we truly are!
For example: in my life, I was a girl and now I am a woman, these are biology-defined categories or hats; I am also wearing a daughter- and a sister-hat, defined by my family constellation; I also wear a scientist hat, because I decided to study biology & do a PhD; at the same time I have an Artist hat I put on when I do art. And so on, and so forth…
To me, I love the idea to wear those different hats, the fact that I can choose when to wear them, and I also love to be able to pick future hats. Like that, I am filling up my closet with plenty of hats AND at the same time I don’t feel restricted by them. Because they are basically just accessories.
At my core I am still Daria, not much changes and I don’t have to define myself by which hat I wear, its rather something temporary that I choose to be.
YesYes, I know some hats are of biological nature and rather fixed, as an example: I won’t be able to get rid of my physical disability hat, it’s always with me; but I don’t define myself over it, its just a bit of a more permanent feature of the vessel I choose to come to earth in :).
I liked this idea of the hats so much, that I decided to start this series about my hats, looking and describing all kinds of hats I have in my closet, coming up with funny stories, serious thoughts & interesting life experiences around them.
If you feel like sharing any of your hat experiences, I would be happy to hear from you :)!
Love,
Daria