Being Invisible is a SuperPower

“Mom, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?”

My daughter asked this question as we drove home from a volleyball game last year. Without missing a beat, I answered instinctively, mostly distracted by driving and my own thoughts.

“Invisibility,” I told her.

My answer even surprised me. My daughter caught me laughing slightly and asked what was funny.

“I’m sure a therapist would have a field day with my answer, honey.”

I’ve lived a very visible life. Even before starting a career in local television news, I worked on projects that were nationally televised. I am an open book for anyone who knows me personally. And it is considered part of my job to share what I do in my personal life on social media.

My life is out there.

However, I am part of the lucky and dwindling population that lived childhood without Facebook, therefore realizing I have a private life and a distinctly different public life. I don’t feel an obligation or impulse to share everything with the world. I have the mental guardrails to ask myself, “is this appropriate?”

While I don’t like to stereotype, many people who grew up with social media or feel an insatiable need for it don’t always realize that there’s a dividing line between private and public. We all know that social media is our “highlight reel” of life (which contributes to mental health issues…but that’s a different topic) and there are moments to share with the world and those to keep to ourselves.

Still, there is a pressure to impress. We all have it.

In my coaching sessions with clients and discussions with other business coaches, we tend to circle back to the art of personal branding. Not just for a business, but for every person. Knowing how to portray yourself to the public and stay authentic to who you are is vital to your career and future. For that reason, I’m developing workshops for young executives and students on how to achieve that balance. I’ve also worked with a client recently on how to tailor personal content to compliment the company brand.

Will I ever be “invisible”?

No. I’ve chosen the “life out loud”, But, I enjoy the moments I keep only to myself. And my hope for my own daughter: she has the superpower to stay as private as possible in a world where oversharing is our weakness.