A Simple Guide to Wearing Many Hats
Written by Katie TalloI look ridiculous in most hats. Must be the shape of my head or something. Okay, I don’t look bad in a baseball cap when I’m running, but most hats give me a goofy, awkward aura. And yet I wear a bunch of hats everyday. Not the kind that hang out on my head, but the kind that let me know who I am – or at least who I’m trying to be.
Example – there’s my freelance filmmaker hat, my chauffeur/cook hat (which is really my mom/wife hat in disguise), my managing editor hat, my friend hat, my forum moderator hat, my fix-and-find-everything hat, my e-book author hat, my running hat (that one’s real), my marketer hat – you get the idea. We wear our hats in many ways – with pride, with resentment and with joy. Some are heavier than others, some are worn out and some are ill fitting.
Are we choosing our hats or are our hats telling us who we are? It’s time to peek inside that giant hat box that is your life and see what’s up with all those freakin’ hats.
Here’s a simple guide to wearing many hats – and learning to love it!
Lift the Brim on Your Hats
Some of the hats I wear obscure my vision. They have big brims that shut out life and keep me looking down. Most hats blind you if you wear them too often. It’s important to not let any one hat keep you from seeing straight out in front of you at that bright, beautiful, bountiful future you envision for yourself. Jobs you hate, work that sucks the life out of you, repetitive chores – these are all hats that need their brims lifted, just a little, so you can see beyond them towards what really matters.
Pick Hats With Some Zany Flare
Once in a while, put on a hat that makes you feel wonderfully weird, not-so-normal, a touch touched. If you have to wash the kitchen floors, put on your goofiest hat and do it dancing with soapy socks on your feet. If you’re going out for a night on the town, put on our crazy, sexy hat. You get the idea. Hats can be fun too.
Choose Hats That Fit
Line up all your hats in a row and then get brutal. Chuck the ones that don’t fit. Are you wearing an accountant’s hat sitting in your cubicle at work while your adventuring nomad hat is stuffed away in a “some day” drawer. Get out those hats that you know you’ve been dying to wear and take a good hard look at the one’s you wear everyday and ask? Do you fit me or am I forcing my head into you? Even if a hat kind of fits, like my e-book author hat, which I’m still making adjustments to, it can take time to feel right. There may even be different ways to wear the hats you decide to keep.
Give Some Hats Away
Sometimes the hats we hate can easily be given to others. We just never thought to ask. My teenage daughter and my husband could both wear my cook hat once in a while. Colleagues can wear job hats, family can wear chore hats, friends can even wear mentor hats when we need them too. Just ask. People’s heads are more adaptable than you think.
Wear Your Favourite Hats
Most of all, wear the hats you love best, most. Parade around in the hats that fit, that feel good, that make you feel genuine and truly like yourself. Soon, they’ll be the only ones worth wearing. Just keep the brims up so you don’t miss out on any new hats that come your way. Life is full of all kinds, shapes, sizes and styles of hats.
Develop Your Own Hat Trick
In hockey, a hat trick occurs when a player scores three goals in one game. I’m suggesting that you make it your goal to have three go-to hats – your own hat trick. When you zero in on your three best hats – those hats that make you, you – then you won’t get overwhelmed with too many hats that don’t fit and you’ll be able to wear your favourites well.
Make Hats Not War
Don’t be afraid to create your own hats in the name of something you believe in – reinvent yourself, envision ways of making change in your world, don a volunteer hat, become a hat-maker. In fact, make a 100 hats in your lifetime if you feel you need to. No single hat needs to define you or keep you inside the box it came in.
And with that — hat’s off to you all!
Photo by Charlotte Morrall
44 Responses to “A Simple Guide to Wearing Many Hats”
Comments
Read below or add a comment...
Please share your thoughts...
subscribe
my ebook
Katie, Great way to look at all of the roles we have to play. I definitely have some brim-lifting to do. I also love the idea of giving away hats. (even if it’s just for a day or two!)
Thanks Courtney. I’m brimming with all kinds of ideas for giving away hats. Brimming! Suddenly I love the word “brim”. It feels like potential.
I’m glad to hear it’s not just me who looks funny in hats. I’ve gotten rid of lots of hats over the last few years as I narrowed down the types of writing I did, stopped leading and participating in various groups, and let adult kids take on adult responsibilities. Once in a while I’ll end up in a bit of a fix when I try to wear all of my remaining hats at once. That doesn’t work out too well
Jean, I bet you look great in a beret! All those curly locks. Great lesson – let adult kids take on adult responsibilities. Gotta get my daughter to read that one. You wear your hats very well indeed. I really don’t know how you do it sometimes.
Katie,
Your sense of humor is awesome. I love the kitchen floor hat with soapy socks. Where were you when my four daughters were growing up. This would have been a blast. Love the idea here with hats. You’re creativity inspires me.
Tess, I actually read a tweet about using soapy socks and it stuck with me. It just made so much sense in a nonsensical way. Glad to inspire and make you laugh.
Oh Katie, I love the idea of the 100 hats; creating the hats, then tossing them away when you feel so inclined, all the while making sure that you can see clearly out from under the brim. There’s freedom in that concept…I love it!
Hey Joanne, there is freedom in knowing we can be and wear anything, repeat ourselves, return to old hats, try new ones. So many of us wear the same one our whole lives. That’s just boring — not to mention unhygienic.
Hey Katie,
First off…GREAT use of the word “freakin’”!!!
That little girl in the pink hat up above…hmmm…I don’t have me one of those hats (although if I did…I am sure it would qualify as “weird” on me!!).
The hats we wear…I love how you have laid this out! It reminds me to dig into that “hat box” of life and pull out some of those I’ve tucked away.
Awesome writing!!!
And…happy hat-wearing to YOU!!
Lance, sometimes freakin’ just fits. I bet you’d look good in that little pink hat. Dig in and see if you’ve got something weird and wonderful tucked away in that hat box. I look forward to seeing what it might be. Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Katie,
Great post about enjoying the present but still having enough perspective and vision to look forward. Sometimes…its the daily “struggles,” that stump us and prevent us from looking at our long term vision.
Thank you. Carolina
Carolina, I know what you mean. I’m right there today, trying to look long term, but all my other hats have the brims down and I can’t quite see it. I think tonight I need to put on my Katie hat and just sit with the future and envision what it looks like. What that hat looks like — I’ve got to make sure it fits or I might head in the wrong direction. You’ve helped me. Thanks.
I really like the analogy Katie and reading this post is a great way to review all the different roles I play in life. Also really excited to find your blog.. Looking forward to having a good look around.
Jen
Jen, so happy the post offered you a useful tool for self analysis. I’m glad you found my blog too and are excited by it. Enjoy.
… and when I wear too many hats at once, they all fall off of my head and I have no earthly idea which one to pick up first! Thanks, Katie for the perspective. I’ll just choose my three favorites!
This post is like going to the zoo … fun AND educational!
I’m sure you wear all your hats very well, Jane. But three is manageable and there’s less juggling and dropping involved.
Katie,
This was so fun to read! You have such a fabulous imagination and way of chunking down these big heavy life lessons into fun and delectable morsels – I love it!
Yes, I can see how some of my hats have been blocking out to much sunshine! Gotta trim those brims for sure. I’m going to stick with three or no, make that four: mortgage maven, blogger babe, intuitive counselor and marketing guru! How’s that?
It was fun speaking with you today for our spotlight interview!
Have a great weekend,
Angela
Angela, I’m glad the morsels work for you. That’s the idea behind most of my writing, to provide tools for “simple, doable, joyful life change”. Love the sound of all your hats – fun, practical and so you. Great hearing your voice today too. Big hugs!
Katie,
A great read! I love the idea that our hats may be telling us who we are. An important reminder to live with intention and regularly reflect on both what we project into the world and what we hope to gain from it.
Heather
Heather, I think regular reflection is rare, necessary and a truly loving way to live life. We get to know ourselves despite our hats and sometimes because of them.
You write so effortlessly convincing, Katie! You’ve inspired me to check the brim on my hats. I don’t have too many to give away because I’m a master delegator (or so I’d like to think), but ther emay be some much loved hats tucked away that need to be dusted off.
Thanks for another beautiful and cleansing post.
Belinda, you are like my writing coach — you keep on believing in me and I so need that. I encourage you to dust off those much loved hats. They have magic in them.
Way to be a master delegator – you could write about how to do that!
Katie,
This is SO clever. What a great analogy. I’m like you and look awful in hats, plus they mess up my (beautiful curly black) hair! Ha ha. So hats off indeed, and I’ll be looking under my brim!
Best,
Linda
Love the name of your blog, Linda. I just wrote a guest post on http://www.goodlifezen.com that talks about insane and serene productivity. Maybe those of us who don’t look good in hats are being told something by the universe – stop wearing so many! Could be.
I had an epiphany reading your post – I’m wearing too many hats all at once and the ones I really want to wear are tucked into the “Some day” box. Time to rearrange the hat box of life.
Great images and a wonderful post. I love your positive take on life. I’ll be following your blog. Thanks!
Jaleta, epiphanies are so … so epic. Yes, too many hats can mean we never find or make the time to chill out, take off a few hats, and sift through our some day box. Happy re-arranging! I hope you discover the hat or hats that fit you best. Thanks for visiting and do come back.
I love gorgeous chic hats that I wear only in Europe and only in the winter. I have this beautiful hat that I bought in Tokyo – cost a fortune but made me look fabulous in Paris. But I think I digress and you mean the hats we wear doing the million things we do, Katie. For some reason, I have never taken to the idea when people say “Now I am wearing my geekie hat or my analyst hat or my boss hat, etc…”I think it may mean that we are many different people and to me, it’s just me doing different things but I think I just have issues with the expression….And none of this is to say that I did not enjoy your clever take on “hats” we wear and how we should wear them! I think we should also mean it when we wear any of our hats. When I have my sous-chef hat on, I am a serious helper around the kitchen and proud of my work for the chef
)!! Thank you for the fun and deep article, Katie!
Farnoosh, thanks for sharing your real hats! They sound lovely. Yes, I agree, the idea of putting on different hats implies we act differently depending on which one we’re wearing – what you likely don’t like about that is that it sounds like we are not being ourselves. I see it not so much as roles we play, but roles we embrace in our own way, but each is different in it’s tasks. I think you see it that way too.
Ah Katie – as the ad says here in Oz, “you’ve done it again’. A terrific post as always.
Like you, I really want to give away a hat or two. Having cooked for my family for so many years, I’d love someone (husband maybe) to wear my cooking hat just one day a week. He’s a mathematician and tells me he can’t multi-task! He also tells me he cannot emulate my cooking – hm!!
The other one would be bathroom cleaning. I don’t mind wearing my ‘Maria’s personal bathroom’ hat, as I make the mess there, but maybe, just maybe someone else could clean the other bathroom!
It’s not easy to offload hats though, because I find that as quickly as I offload one hat, my family dons their blinkers!! That means that eventually I can’t stand the mess and …well the hat is back on my head.
And then I have to front up to work and wear “Six Thinking Hats’!!! There is no escape!!!
Maria, thanks so much for the wonderful praise. Hmm, my husband has similar excuses for not grabbing the chef hat. When he does begrudgingly take the hat, he burns food, I think so he doesn’t have to cook again. He’s a bartender and tells me he only does drinks, not food. Good thing I’m not an alcoholic. You’re right, it’s not easy to give away hats or shrug them off. Hat’s off to you for trying your best and likely, doing a great job keeping those around you very content and happy. Don’t forget to wear your diva hat once in a while though and treat yourself to a day off. Sounds like you deserve it, Maria.
Hi Katie,
your posts are so positive, I love that! Great advice, I’ve bookmarked this and will read it again and again – repetition is key
Thanks for sharing.
Hey Cristina, positivity is contagious, isn’t it? You’ve hit on something that really works — repetition of messages that resonate with us. Thanks for your encouragement.
I love how you use humor and wit to deliver such awesome advice. I think one of your hats must be “fantabulously inspired by the muses girl.”
I tip my hat to you!!
CC, that “fantabulously inspired by the muses girl” hat is one of my favourites. Thanks for noticing. It’s a bit silly looking but I just don’t care. Cheers!
What a fun way to look at how we’re living our lives! Oh I love this hat analysis! It’s much more fun and interesting than just plainly analyzing what we’re doing with our life and how it’s affecting us. I am happy to say that as I visit my hat box of life and my retired hat box….. I like many of my current hats and am thrilled to have retired some that didn’t fit right right and brims that kept the sun away.
What a fun colorful post! I’m so thrilled you are in the blogosphere and I get to read these fabulous colorful posts!
Oh Aileen, you are the sweetest commenter ever! I’m thrilled to share the blogosphere with you and so happy for you that your current hats fit well and let you see the sun.
This is so clever & such a good metaphor. I have this dilemma so often: I feel like I can only wear one ‘hat’ all the time to be authentic. Like I can’t be passionate about more than one thing – which I really am! I keep feeling like I have to choose, but maybe I don’t. Thanks
Michelle, in my opinion you definitely don’t have to wear just one hat to be authentic. Maybe you’re a renaissance woman. I was told in my early career that I had to decide what I was going to focus on — what role, what niche, but I couldn’t and didn’t. I wanted to try something new each time I began a project. I liked reinventing myself and learning new things. Nothing wrong with that. Those boxes people try to put us in are just for their own comfort, not for our own good. You do what you’re passionate about and life will be truly rich for you.
Katie, just throw in the hat metaphor and I’m there (!). I’m a hat addict! But I love what you’re saying here and think that we have a wonderful opportunity to reinvent ourselves if we so choose. The movie “eat pray love” also covers this subject nicely. I too was told to “just be one thing”, ok…I was but then I shifted several times! I think that if my authority figures had just left me alone I would had discovered what I love to do so much sooner instead of later in life. Well, better late than never I suppose! Thanks for the great article and the affirmation of sanity!
Love the red hat, Victoria. Wouldn’t it be a different world if a required high school course was “how to follow your dreams and find your passion in life”? Guess they left that one off the curriculum. I’m so happy you found the article affirming! Yes, you sound very sane to me.