[Rainbow D. Clown]

Just joining the forum and feel compelled to jump in. What is a professional? What a wonderful question! Let me reply with a few questions? What is a professional to you? How do you consider someone else to be a professional? What makes you declare another as a professional? What convinces you that someone is a professional? As you can see, I feel the answer is the the eye of the beholder. Any one can call themselves a professional, just as anyone can call themselves a clown. Anyone can get dressed up and charge for a few inflated swords or hearts and happy faces on the cheek. But what makes them a professional? The fact that they are dressed the part and charged the part? Is it because they went thru a "school" or class session with a certificate of completion? My view is, you are a professional when you know in your heart that you are doing everything you can to learn your skills, and then taking every opportunity to put them to use and apply them for your purpose. My purpose is to bring joy to others and myself thru humor, interaction, artistic creations, silly conversations, and uplifting emotions. I get paid to do this at times, and at times I gladly volunteer, but my mission is carried out, and I know I carried it out well because I put my heart and soul into carrying it out well. I've never attended a professional education session. I read the books that the others who did wrote. Then I learned my audience and defined my purpose. I changed a lot along the way in the name of filling my purpose. But I was a professional from day one. It's internal. If you want to be a professional, it will consume your thinking. Paycheck or no paycheck, the whole journey is in a profession, so to take that journey is to be professional. If you can look back at what you do, and imagine someone else doing it, would you say they are a professional? If not, what would that person need to do to be professional? Then take your own advice and work with it. You never stop learning in any profession. It's a constant quest. Hope that's not too deep, but then again.....think about it.