What Does Being Seen Cost You?

CMAT's statement is about the price of visibility — this canvas asks you to map that price in your own life or work.

Moments of visibility

Name three situations — recent or recurring — where you are, or have been, genuinely visible to others: at work, online, in social groups, in performance, in writing.

What it gives

For ONE of those situations, list what visibility has created or opened for you — recognition, opportunity, connection, influence.

What it costs

Now list what that same visibility has taken from you — energy, privacy, control, comfort, security. Mark the one cost you most underestimate.

The core trade-off

Write one sentence that names the real trade-off in that situation — not 'pros and cons', but the single tension you are actually navigating. Commit to a formulation: 'The more I [X], the more I risk [Y].'

Chosen or assigned?

CMAT says her visibility was not chosen — it arrived with success. Sort your own visibility: how much of it did you seek, and how much arrived without your consent? Mark your honest position on the spectrum.

fully chosen

entirely assigned

What would change it

Look back at your cost from step 3. Name one concrete change — structural, behavioural, or relational — that would genuinely reduce that cost. Is it realistic? Write why or why not.

One word for the shape of it

What single word captures the relationship between your visibility and your wellbeing right now? Write it, then write one sentence explaining why that word and no other.

Why that word?

Discuss Share your word from step 7 with a partner — do your words rhyme, contradict, or illuminate each other?

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