What kind of role model do you want to be?
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Earlier this week I received a text message from my sister about my niece; it was a message that filled me with so much joy I find it difficult to find the words to describe it but I want to try.
Recently my niece began reading and watching the Harry Potter series and two things have resulted from this. The first is that my Instagram algorithm has now started sending me Harry Potter Reels which are hilarious. The second is that my niece has chosen to dress up as Emma Watson for a school event which led to my sister sending me this text:
“We were just chatting here about Emma Watson because [my niece] is going to be her for some school project. Anyway, dad looks her up and mentions all the good things Emma is doing for women's rights. She goes ‘ooh reminds me of Tía’"
I am Tía, her Aunt Kristen, and when I read that I was floored. Being a positive influence in the world, especially around women’s rights, is something that I strive to be but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything noteworthy. Yet here is this wonderful little girl that thinks I have. To her, I have. If I’m being honest I am not sure what I have done or said in her presence for her to compare me to a woman who is actually speaking up and has a platform to make a genuine difference, but I guess that’s it isn’t it… we all have a platform whether we realize it or not. The world we stand upon every day, no matter how little it may seem to us, is influencing those within reach, for better or worse.
I was fortunate enough for my sister to share this with me; fortunate enough for someone to tell me the role model I was being. We all may not have the opportunity to know what kind of positive or negative influence we are having on the people in our lives, but it’s always there. So the question remains, what kind of role model do you want to be? If someone were to dress up like you for a school project, would you be proud? Would it fill you with joy?
We may not ever have a platform big enough that encourages kids we have never met to dress up like us for school… but we have our family, our friends, the person at the check out counter, the man that sits in the chair at the end of his driveway… all people we are knowingly or unknowingly influencing.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Finding Your Five and how you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That post is about finding people who can influence you; this post is about being the influence. It’s very easy to wish for better leaders, better managers, better mentors… the list goes on and on. We always want that support and it’s more than OK to find it and even demand it, just make sure that you are also thinking about what you’re giving out to others.
Whether you would like it or not, you are a role model for the people around you, so be sure to be the role model that is worthy of imitation.
