You Are Not A Product
So stop treating yourself like one
When some teacher, a long time ago, during an undergrad seminar in goal setting, let me in on the secret that I had a “personal brand”, I was instantly sold. Spending my time building, crafting, improving my self in a goal-directed project-like way was something I’d never considered before.
Referring to self-presentation as “branding” is apt. It underlies what the Millennial self has become: a product.
Seeing myself as a brand excites me. It means everything I do carries weight, because it involves me — the product.
The podcast, the blog, the diploma, the publications, the volunteering. It’s all in there. The concerts I go to, the books I review on Goodreads, the shows I watch. All expressions of my identity that have their place in the product that constitutes my identity. Exercising, sleeping, eating — done with an eye to improving the product.
Nothing is wasted. It all counts.
However, the manufacturing process of this product turns out to have dark, hidden costs.
It really all counts
When everything goes ‘in there’, the next-most-obvious seduction is to make everything — social life, health, productivity — as good as possible.
