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Life is like a theatre. We have scripts and roles that we play out
for an audience that we call society. Sometimes our life is a drama
or sometimes it’s a comedy or anything else in between. In any
theatre performance, our roles are enhanced by the elaborate props
and make up we put on ourselves to give the audience a good show.
The question is: How long have we been on stage? And do we remember
who is behind the make up and props.
Take one metaphorical prop and make up. The
calling card. Those of us in business or in a career that entails
meeting people, the calling card is an indispensable tool of
declaring the role you are playing for them. Calling cards come in
many designs and colors to show affiliations and positions. Often we
play the role of what is on the card so much so that we often forget
who the actor is.
This is quite prevalent with actors, or people,
who become too focused on their jobs and careers that they forget
that it’s just a role. What if the titles and position written on
the calling card just disappear the next day? What would be the role
now? Who is the actor in-between roles or careers?
Try this exercise if you’d like: List down all
the “roles” you are playing right now, not just career roles,
but personal roles as well. Your list can go like this: “Banker,
pharmacist, writer, manager, sales executive, president, leader,
father, mother, friend, teacher, assistant, student … etc.” Fill
up the whole page if you can. Then go through them again one by one
and ask yourself: “Is this role permanent? Will I be still playing
this role 5 years from now? 10 years from now? 20 years from now? 50
years from now?” Go through the masks and see which ones are
guaranteed to stay on. How do you feel if one particular mask fell
down? Who would you be when that happens? Having a role in the
theatre of life is very fulfilling. It enhances our self worth that
we have a contribution to “entertaining” the audience. The
applause of performing our roles on cue is very motivating. But when
there is a change of scene and script, no audience to watch us, and
our roles don’t even have a part as an extra, what happens now? We
face the toughest audience of all: Ourselves. Do we dare take a bow?
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