Rewriting The Book Cover

My previous post was about how we judge people based on the images they present of themselves and how much more complicated it is when we recognize that we as people typically present an image that is not representative of themselves.  It's relatively simple to understand when people are motivated to get others to think the best of them. The flip side of the coin isn't so easy to understand. Going into detail concerning the motivations of that deserves its own post; suffice it to say that many of us have been programmed to think less highly of ourselves than we ought in a way that prompts us to diminish the image of ourselves instead of thinking of others more highly. We write our book covers in a way that prompts people to leave us on the shelf even if we're the only book on the shelf at the time.

Rewriting our book covers is hard, but it might be the easiest step in the process. First, one has to be able to recognize the pattern exists. This might be the hardest part; the pattern can be quite obvious, but the typical response is denial and rationalization because no one wants to acknowledge what is to them a painful truth. The tragedy is that the 'truth' one's been trained to believe about themselves is in fact a lie. The process that prompted belief in this lie may not have been motivated by malice, but the result is the same. I used to make fun of people that were in what was to me obvious denial, but I've come to respect how it takes a lot of strength and courage to come to grips with things like these.

If you're still tracking with me, great. Speaking as someone who's come to recognize how I've believed certain things about myself that are in fact not true, I'm looking at certain patterns I've repeated in my life, and one of these things is discovering how I've written my metaphorical book cover and how I've used it to keep a lot of people at arm's length.

My book cover as I see it has relatively little reference to my musical background. This reflects a couple of lies I've believed:

1) I'm not a 'legit' musician because I somehow lacked the appropriate pedigree;
2) It's good to have musical ability, but it's somehow not appropriate to enjoy it

to the point that I've struggled with a lot of repressed anger over not expressing that aspect of who I am.

This is the part of my book cover I'm working to rewrite at this time;  I've written an ebook on music theory, and I've started offering music instruction, and I'm slowly creating a niche for myself working with younger students. It's already starting to pay off; a lot of the music world knows me as a dancer, but as I was speaking with a band member during a break, he asked about my musical background and I mentioned that I first started with violin and that I was giving music lessons. It turned out that he has two kids and he's looking for an instructor for them.

I guess the point is that rewriting the cover also requires putting yourself out there with the new cover so people can see it.