I said I would talk a little bit about myself, and this is one of those posts where I do, but that is because I’m new round here, and I feel like I should tell you a little bit more about myself. I’m a mum of two. Don’t worry, this isn’t a mummy blog (nothing against them, I just presume you’re not here to listen to me witter on about my kids, though you will have to bear with me for a few minutes). I list motherhood first as, there’s no denying it, currently it is the biggest part of my life; even when I am at work, I am a mother to two young girls, and they take up a lot of brain space. Important things that I learned at university, like how to calculate standard deviation, have been permanently overwritten with the theme tune to Fireman Sam. And every coat I own appears to have hair clips and socks in the pocket. Oh go on, since you asked, here’s a picture.

I have worked for the same company for nearly 10 years, doing various analytical and now staff development roles. I like cake, crochet, and listening to The Archers and tweeting about it on a Sunday morning. Rock on baby.

So, what does that all tell you about me? That I sound like a middle aged woman? But it doesn’t really tell you about the real me. You know when you get those questions “Describe yourself in 3 words?” yeah, I really struggle too.

Before I started this blog I sat down and tried to think about what the essentials of me are. My last blog was a testament to my inability to focus on one thing, and that was great and eclectic, but in doing so people who read it for the craft might be put off by the ranty feminism. And those who appreciated my calls for equality might have thought I was betraying the sisterhood with my keenness for crochet and baking. I want this blog to be focused. I want it to be part of my pathway to a future career. I needed to know what I really and truly care about. So I turned to my trusty felt tips and came up with this:

I’m a big fan of visual thinking, and that will come up more in this blog. This doodle or map (or whatever you want to call it) of me helped me to think about what I am really about. Interests is the easiest one. Interests are what you dream about doing when you’re putting the kids to bed. They are the activities you enjoy doing, whether it’s stamp collecting, watching films, or abseiling, we all have interests, whether we indulge them or not.

Values are a bit harder to define. If an interest is what you do, a value is why you do it. There are some great lists and techniques for uncovering your own values which I will blog about in the future.

Finally there are our strengths. I bet for most of you this would be the hardest section to populate, not because it is difficult to define strengths, but because it is hard to identify our own. If interests are things we like to do, and values are why we do things, strengths are how we do them. Again I have more things up my sleeve that can help you identify your strengths.

For now why don’t you give this technique a go? Get yourself some paper and pens, preferably coloured ones (always use coloured pens!) and draw a map of who you are. You don’t have to do it like I did, you don’t have to draw pictures or bubbles, but I will give this one piece of advice, avoiding writing it as a linear list; don’t constrain yourself by the number of lines on a page. Look for patterns and crossovers between the sections, and find out what makes the essence of you.