Do you remember who you were when you were nine? For many kids, there were no limits. I remember our kind, 60+ year old babysitter, Mrs. Page. She was pleasant enough to act like she was interested in what I had to say. “I’m going to build really big airplanes”, I told her as I thrust a long thin rock in the air that I colored with green crayons. Yes, I thought I was going to build airplanes out of rocks. In my mind I was already an inventor and the pilot. I had a vision of this thing flying at breakneck speed.
So at some point in life we traded what we wanted to do when we were nine for what we thought we needed to do in our teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. The progression was gradual for most. Maybe you got married and had children in your twenties and the dream to start your own shop slowly faded.
It’s not easy to raise a family, work full time, go to school, and work on your dream project, let alone even think about what it would take to launch. It’s great to pour your life into another person; feeding, clothing and loving them, and teaching and guiding them to a better life.
But, what kind of example are we setting if we are teach our kids, co-workers, and friends ‘I just don’t have time to pursue my dreams?’
Have you caught yourself saying and thinking?
- I don’t have time to work out.
- I always wanted to start a blog, but I don’t know how to get started.
- I’ll like to eat healthy food but it takes too long to cook.
- I’d like to find a better job, but I don’t have the skill set.
- I deserve a raise or promotion because I’ve been here longer.
Prioritize
If getting the right job, a promotion, or starting a new business is really important to you, make getting that job more important than catching up with your favorite TV programs. You can do it! If you just cut a couple hours out of your TV viewing per week and worked online developing a new skill, in a matter of a few weeks, you could launch ahead of the average person in your industry. Want to be a thought leader? Don’t wait for your company to train you. Train yourself. Udemy has over 16,000 courses online. It’s excellent to put God and family ahead of career, personal branding, or business ownership. However, you could become who you wanted to be when you were nine by simply putting ‘take daily steps to start a new blog’ or ‘sign up for flying lessons’ or ‘I’m going to work out for 30 minutes today’ in front of ‘watch more TV’. Leisure is important. But, maybe we should delete it from our top 5 list.
Direction Matters
Fred Smith, Sr. responded to questions about goal setting with the comment: “Direction is more critical than goals.” He would often ask people, “Are you satisfied with the direction you are going?” You may be moving in life at a rapid pace, but in which direction are you moving?
Many people think that in order to land their dream job, attract the ideal client or secure that great promotion, it just takes hard work, dedication and expertise. In part, that’s true.
Lisa goes on to tell the importance of listening to your target market to find out what their needs are and how to meet those needs in a way that makes you irresistible to your target audience. It’s about creating your personal brand.
Create Your Personal Brand
It starts today; start making one difficult decision today. It will pay off dividends for the future. In the end, the sum of the difficult decisions you make will shape your legacy and your brand.
- Instead of sharing photos or stories about your family, spend fifteen minutes listening to a colleague, supervisor, client, family member. What are their needs? What do they believe? What are they concerned about?
- Instead of promoting your services or your company’s features and benefits, share or promote someone else’s ideas.
- Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matt 6:3b). Help others without trying to get attention for yourself. Why? It’s the right thing to do and it will help you focus on helping your clients get better results instead of how you will benefit from it. The good news is that if you’re clients are gaining profits, they just might have more money to spend with you.
What is the one difficult decision you can make today that will help enhance your personal brand?
