"Glow up. Shine down." This is an idea I came up with while listening to the song Glow by Drake. It's from his "More Life" album. An album that, I hate to admit, has gone from absolutely terrible to at the very least tolerable. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about the merits of Drake music. This idea of glowing up and shining down has been on my mind for a couple of weeks. So what is it? For me "glowing up" is about self promotion. Which I hate. It makes me uncomfortable. I think people should do good work and that work should be recognized/rewarded without having to be blasted all over social media or anywhere else.
That being said, I realize self promotion is a necessary evil. We live in hyper competitive times and for anyone trying to advance in their careers, love lives or anything else they are going to have to sing their own praises.
"Shining down" is all about educating and helping other people get where you are or wherever it they're trying to go. This is my happy place. I love helping people take complex (to them) ideas and breaking them down into simple tasks.
"Shining down" allows me to lead by example. Now calling myself a leader is very self promotional and it's making me squeamish just typing it. The difference here, is that I get to lead by example. I get to say "I did that thing, I did it this way and it totally didn't work; you might want to try it this way."
Like I said this is just something that's been on my mind recently. As I think about it more and more it kind of explains some of the things I like and dislike. I like teaching and mentorship activities. I don't like listing my accomplishments. In sports I always enjoyed participating with friends but I didn't necessarily enjoy the competition of the games/matches.
Do you have any philosophies that, either purposefully or accidentally, explain the actions you take or decisions you make? Let me know in the comments.
