Biographies go deep into their subject’s lives so readers can examine and evaluate everything that went on. By writing your own biography, you can get a powerful glimpse at who you really are, how you might be perceived, and how you can be better.
Picture: Stephan Rosger
For this exercise, from Aliza Licht, the author of Leave Your Mark: Land Your Dream Job. Kill It In Your Career. Rock Social Media., it’s important that you write your biography, not your autobiography. Write about yourself in third person so you can be as thorough as you can. Look at your life and career from the outside and be honest about everything, like you’re a journalist writing about someone else. Use a fake name if you have to, and avoid selling yourself like it’s a resume. There’s no need to write hundreds of pages either, just enough to get a good glimpse.
Once you’re done, read it back to yourself. Do you like what you see? Would you like this person? Would you want to hire or work with this person? How does this person come across? Where do you see this person going? You may not like what you read at all, but that’s the point. The shift in perspective allows you to see exactly what you need to change in order to be the person you want to be (or who you thought you were already). It’s a lot easier to fill in the missing pieces when you know what those pieces are.
Leave Your Mark [Amazon via Business Insider]
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