I’ve been working on a new Another Door group programme and, the bit I love, creating names and taglines for the experience. This usually involves a lot of flip charting and post-it notes, and making words up, because sometimes there just isn’t the word you are looking for.
So I came up with the Rethink Shapeshifter experience. And I was pretty pleased with myself until I double checked meaning and context.
“A Shapeshifter is the person who always seems to find a way to fit in regardless of circumstances. It’s often hard to really know a shapeshifter.” The Online Dictionary
Oh. So it sounded good, but this definition is not what we are striving for. And then it made me think. That we are all shapeshifters is some parts of our lives. We have to / want to fit in so we shift ourselves. And sometimes that ok, but sometimes that can feel so wrong, like you are fighting yourself so hard so that you feel part of the team, that you forget who you are altogether.
I’ve definitely had moments of that in corporate life. And actually in this self employed life, where you join a group of entrepreneurs who all talk in a certain way, judge success in a certain way, and go along with it thinking that must be how you do - until you realise it’s how they do it, not how You do it.
(And don’t even start reading about the mythology version of shapeshifters where you shift into an animal, and then of course the Tik Tok application, it’s mine field)
So - shapeshifter isn’t sounding like its a great word to use. Rethinking is a positive way to shift and form into something you want to, not because you have to.
Maybe I can change the meaning. Why not shapeshift, not to fit in for others, but fit in for yourself? There Rethink Shapeshifters might just work.
Anyways. This is what happens when I have a spare hour, a programme idea developing, and a big pack of post-it notes.
eleanor
Are you a shapeshifter?
I used to consciously shapeshift my accent to fit in as a child. For a while I had a home accent and a school accent! Don't think I do the same as an adult, not consciously anyway.