Are you serious?

Seriously, how serious are you about testing? Let's presume you study the craft of testing. Does that make you a serious tester?
If you answer yes to this question, congratulations. You are on your way to becoming a serious tester. Now ask yourself this question:

“Do you take yourself seriously?”

If you want to be taken seriously about testing, you need to take yourself seriously. Note the difference here. Taking yourself seriously is much larger than being a serious tester.

Taking yourself seriously means you avoid behaviour and thinking such as:

“I will put myself down in front of others to make them feel better about themselves”
“I resort to behaving childishly when placed in pressure situations”
“I hand over power in order to avoid conflict”
“I feel like a fake even though my actions demonstrate otherwise”

I know this, because its only recently I realised that I haven’t been taking myself so seriously.

When you stop speaking to yourself in such a way and start taking yourself seriously, a wonderful thing happens. You start to believe in yourself. In fact, you have to. You owe it to yourself to do so.

I’ve discovered a new strength in this self belief. It means I have courage and strength to stand up for what I want. In doing so, I give myself the respect and honour for all the hard work I have put in.

So, let me ask the question again: Do you take yourself seriously?

Expression epitomised in Rage comics following a David Silverman interview of Fox News by Bill O’Reilly