We are the roles we play
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts….”
-Act II, Scene VII, As You Like It,
William Shakespeare,
We are defined not as a set of characteristics or traits, not as a sealed
package by others. Instead, everyone sees us for the discrete, granular roles
that we play in their lives. The ‘package’ that we see in our own heads is our
own perspective of all the roles we play in the lives of all the people we
know.
You may be a caring child, a sincere student, a loyal friend, a
passionate lover, a dedicated employee, a pleasant boss, a doting father and a
responsible citizen: each of these roles call for a set of characteristics and
need you to act in a manner that suits the roles you choose to play.
Ain't that why someone we hate from the guts is liked by some
others, why some fall in love with people that just don’t care, why some people
buy goods that others absolutely detest, why there is such a huge variety of
everything, why someone who is highly successful in his profession has a ruin
of a family life and vice versa, why there are no absolute good/bad human
beings?
This might sound uncannily similar to the concept of core competency
for businesses- something that one company can perform much better than any
others and can keep doing that way. So, if your teacher always vetoes you to be
the class coordinator; if one of your friends seeks you to fix a problem and
doesn’t bother to even talk to you otherwise; if your children call you only
when they need pocket money; if your boss directs all the yelling clients to
you - it could well be because that is what they find to be your ‘core
competency’.
And just as difficult adding a core competency could be to a
business, so is migrating to a different role in a person’s life- not
impossible, but definitely not easy. And of course, everyone can’t be everything.
The trick is in choosing what roles to play in which acts and putting together
a balanced package- in our heads, that is.
-MaCh
18th February, 2014
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