After three months on social media I took a look back. Looking back entails looking at the past, 4000 followers ago. Meanwhile this platform has become an integral part of my day. There are some profiles I enjoy following, and there are those who enjoy following my life. After 12 weeks I can say that I’m getting more and more familiar with Instagram everyday and I have already spent many hours on it.
Occasionally there are profiles that intimidate me. It’s those that write about their great jobs and that makes me feel small sometimes. I see pictures of perfectly styled women with their hair blowing in the wind. They’re sitting in wonderful sunny places and wear the most exciting clothes. Then there’s the sport crazy women who post their impossible run times wearing tight neon colored underwear and showing their six-pack. Pictures of lunches or dinners which will turn any cook green with envy.
The last profile that intimidated me however ,was the feed of a man who didn’t looked so special to be honest. He wasn’t special but he was extremely likable, at least from my perspective. As a profile picture he had a portrait of himself where he showed a broad smile with bright eyes. He held a yellow paper mouth on a stick in his hand. Like the props that are often used at weddings in a photo booth to make funny pictures. It wasn’t even the picture or his photo collection that made me doubt myself. His photos obviously weren’t professional. A beer now and then, a self-portrait, or slices of strawberry cake. Photos of his son playing billiards and his sleeping cat actually created the impression that his profile is just another unspectacular one. In thoughts I already had categorized him in the same mid-to late thirty age group as myself. It was his short profile text that made me absolutely want to follow him a few weeks ago. The text said, “pattern-breaker, freestyle-entrepreneur, manager, free spirit.“ Then under the quote it said: “The world is colorful.” In addition he gave his address and website which I didn’t deem necessary to visit.
This profile suggested the man to be so free thinking that he doesn’t even attach importance to posting good photos just because he didn’t need it at all. So I followed him the first three months of my Instagram life. I was a little regretful though. Secretly I thought to be a free spirit myself but I always got in the way when I tried to present myself how i wanted to be seen. I wondered what an exciting job he must have. A job, that allows to break down the patterns and to discover the world in all its colors. I want to be like him.
Almost three months later on a particular day I opened the link to his homepage for the first time. It was a page where you could configure your own solid home – weather active energy houses, a classic single-family-house or a bungalow. My pattern breaker is selling model houses? Ready-made houses? It’s not that I think this job doesn’t deserve appreciation. I just ask myself how free can your mind be when you have to act in such a framework? Even though or maybe just because of that Mr. D. is my secret Instagram hero. With his 2000 followers who follow him whatever motives they have. Maybe they are all house builders or people who want to become house builders. For me he is a hero because he inspired me by means of simple tools-at least for a little while.
How can I inspire you?
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