It is a strange trade that of advocacy. Your intellect, your highest heavenly gift is hung up in the shop window like a loaded pistol for sale. -Thomas Carlyle
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/carlyle/carlyle4.html
I like this quote by Carlyle concerning advocacy. I picture someone standing outside a shop window and looking in at every thing that is put out into the open to possibly add to their lives. I think if you are an informed consumer subscribing to what someone else advocates has the same concept of sales. The advocate has to be able to be a salesman to some extent. We have to be well informed, and experienced, at what we are trying to sell to someone or we dont make the sale. An easy concept when you think about it. But then I think about the series Mad Men and how these men, and women, make an art form on manipulateing the public to buy what they are selling. They are not so interested in the concept of, "is what we are selling actually going to improve the quality of life" as how much money will it make us. So, as consumers, if we dont take the time to research what the other person is trying to sell us, then more often than not, we find ourselves buying into something that we really dont need, something that we really dont believe in, and most importantly, something, that in the end, will truley not make us happy.
I have actually had this idea on my mind for some time but was struggling a little with how and what to put into words. It is the idea of advocacy. I am all for advocateing. There are a few things I feel strongly about and advocate. I am a child advocate, always making the sale for the best interest of the child and adolescent. I am an advocate for free will and free choice. I am an advocate for familys. I make sales pitches constantly for peace, honesty, love and compassion. I advocate being able to speak your mind politely and respectfully, but still speaking it, selling it. I advocate sharing thoughts and ideas. I sell creativity. I advocate what I feel very strongly about and (here is the important part of advocateing) I advocate what I am realistically able to sell. I am able to sell what I beleive in to most people most of the time.
The last part is what has made me ponder advocacy. I think some people out there are confused. I have observed that some people seem to think that just talking about something is the same thing as advocateing it and then they wonder why they can't sell it. I will explain why in hopes of making some people better advocates for what they speak out about.
I am going to advocate that using a dictionary to fully understand the meaning of a word helps you understand how to use the word. Not just in a sentance, but applying it to morals, values and actions. So here is the site for dictionary.com.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/advocate?s=t
Pretty straight forward deffinitions I think. Lets take it a step farther. There are some people who get hung up on deffinitions, for instance take the first two; writing and speaking for what you believe in. The real key to being a great advocate are the last two. Speaking up for another human being and pleading in a court of law.
Lets elaborate on the last deffinition especially.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/court?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/law?s=t
I think that in a deffinition of a word many of us think that the meaning has an either/ or status...why cant it be all of the above? So because right now I am advocateing you putting the pieces of all of this together think about that when reading all of the possible deffinitions for court and law. Learning how to do this effectively wil make you a better sales person. You will be able to discuss what you are trying to sell from all view points. Now just so you dont get confused about what my mind set is I want to share that I do not advocate taking the law into your own hands, forming your own court and instilling your own brand of justice. Dont forget I advocate peace, love, truth and compassion. So in forming your own opinions about what you choose to advocate for always remember to keep true to yourself. Include your core morals and values.
I will share a few examples of what I mean. I have a friend that I met through school. We are not great friends, but she has earned my respect and there fore I call her friend. She is a great advocate against GMO's and an advocate for healthy living. She sports some pretty awesome tattoos, another reason for liking her, and she researches everything that she advocates for. Most importantly she walks the walk; meaning she lives what she sells. This is an important step in advocacy if you want people to take you seriously. How can you possibly advocate if you are not living what you advocate for? So when I need advice on certain issues regarding food and healthy living I tap into her knowledge. Here's another part of respectful advocacy, if she doesnt know she says so. Honest selfless behavior. She's a great sales person. When she posts on facebook regarding GMO's, and other information, I take the time to read because I trust her knowledge. I know what she's trying to sell means something to her and I trust her. I took the time to find out what kind of person she is before buying into what she is selling.
Another example along the same lines is a friend/ hairdresser who also advocates a healthy lifestyle. NOW I put hairdresser in her title for a reason and I will explain. A hairdresser is what she does it is not who she is. WHO she is incorporates her lifestyle which is her extensive knowledge on nutrition and exercise. (Although she is an awesome hari dresser.) She learned this after loosing close to two hundred pounds. She walks the walk and is another example of a person who uses respectful advocacy. She Is also Buddhist so her lives is focused on love, kindness and compassion towards others no matter what she does. When she makes a post on facebook I read it because I know it was well researched and will hold merit. I buy what she is selling.
I can pretty safely say that just about everyone who is on my facebook advocates honestly, respectfully, compassionately and selflessly. More importantly if they make a mistake they dont get all but hurt about it, they just research it more and either prove they were right in their thinking or say sorry and learn from their mistake. They are all true wonderful examples of outstanding human beings and I advocate for them as such always. If I cant then you are not on my friends list; at the beginning, and end, of each day I need to advocate for me first. I want my word to mean something; it is important to me to sell a genuine product that I beleive in. Here are some sites that have some pretty good advice on how to advocate.
http://www.naemt.org/advocacy/advocate/howtoadvocate.aspx
http://www.co.oswego.ny.us/mental/guidelines%20on%20how%20to%20advocate%20for%20yourself.pdf
http://www.cccnewyork.org/about/what-is-effective-advocacy/?gclid=CLX1xv3QtLgCFazm7Aodaj4ADg
Here are my thoughts for you that these sites dont address on how to advocate for something you believe in. I feel that everyone, at one time or another, questions their place in the world. I have shared before that one of the things that was said to me when I was a teen came from my father, "We are here to touch one persons life. We may never know who that person is but that is why we always make the choice to be kind and understanding to everyone we meet." He was not Buddhist, but that statement is one of the reasons I am. It is also one of the reasons that I am a Social Worker, a Child Advocate, and mom, a wife, and a friend. What he shared with me spoke to me.
Everything I advocate speaks for who I have choosen to be as a person and, most importantly, it makes me feel good, even when others around me tried to make me feel other wise. Even on the days when I know I have failed, made a mistake, and seen portions of life that, in all honesty, I could have happily gone a life time and not known. Advocateing for what I beleive in, for what I truley feel strongly about keeps me centered and whole. It is part of my core moral and value system.
http://logical-critical-thinking.com/human-thoughts/what-is-morality-and-where-does-morality-come-from/
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_85.htm
Since the beginning of my advocacy choice (career by the way) I have spoken to persons with in the government who can make a difference with the information I shared with them. I have taught at the state level. I have taught to hundreds of people. I continute to learn what I believe in. I speak the truth for what I believe. I am open minded to others, and their needs, and listen to what they have to say. I advocate for the life that I have choose, and advocate any, and all, learning opportunitys. Some might read this and say to themselves that I am pretty full of myself and am just looking for a reason to get attention. May be....but may be I feel good about what I have choosen, may be I feel strongly about advocacy in general, and may be I feel in selling praise.
Being a good advocate means being able to share what you know, how you live, with enthusiasm, confidence, intellegence, respect and praise. When anyone feels good about what they are doing they want others to feel the same way. So while I am telling you how to be an advocate I am not telling you what to advocate for. The choices that I have made to ensure my happiness are not going to be what makes you happy.
The two previous people that I used as examples I respect, not only because of their genuine advocation of what they believe in, but also because what they have choosen to advocate for are things that I have not choosen for myself. I want to eat healthy, and make daily efforts to do so, but unlike them this lifestyle is not hard wired into me. What is hard wired into me is understanding children. I can look at a kid, briefly speak to a family/parent(s) and give working solutions for making any child more successful. I am grateful everyday for this gift and genuinly understand that this gift is what I am suppose to advocate for to make the world a better place. If I choose to take this gift and do nothing with it it is bad karma. I put what I am selling into a store window for everyone to look at, fully aware at any time that someone might take a gun and shoot down the pane of glass and steal what I am selling. What do I do if that happens? Will it change how I feel about what I have choosen to advocate for? No. Because I believe in what I sell. You don't have to buy into it. But because I have choosen to fully research what I adovcate, because I feel it is part of who I am and makes me stronger, I will rebuild and continue to sell what I believe in.
The Pith of the Matter here? Simple really. Find your gift. Find your strength. Find what drives you, what your passionate about and sell it. Do something more that just lecturing to people around you about your supposed knowledge on what ever product happens to be the current fad to put you at the center of attention. If you cannot back up what you know with factual evidence, much of which should be supported with wisdom based on YOUR experiences, then very few people will listen and respect you. No one will read your facebook posts and, in fact, many will take you off of their daily feeds, perhaps block you, and troll you; and not the Im going to test your knowledge kinda troll, but the your full of shit troll and Im going to test your sales pitch to break down that pane of glass that you think follishly protects you. A great sales person is not the one who sells you the newest version of that HD flat screen tv, or the newest tennis shoe, or computer game. The greatest sales person is the one who buys into the life style they are trying to sell by advocateing some thing they truley beleive in. They make you think about life; your life, others life, and everyones place in it. I am forever grateful for every advocate in my life that makes me think about how I live. It is these people that make me a better sales person for my own life and that is what I put into my sales window. Dont like what you see? Move along please, please don't loiter, no tresspassing allowed. Nothing to see nothing to see move along.
Peace out. ;)
Im passionate about people. I've spent my life in advocacy. People matter-whether or not we agree on the issue, people matter. - Ann Marie Buerkle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Marie_Buerkle
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