Do you find that sometimes there is just too much going on in your life and something has to give? A younger version of me would have carried on and got everything done, despite the personal cost. I remember weeks going by when I’d only get 3-4 hours of sleep.

Looking back now, I can think clearer about why I acted like I did.
I may have appeared confident but I lacked confidence. I wasn’t assertive enough to say no and I put my own needs last. Cancelling personal commitments and putting my health way down my priority list.
It’s even harder now, there are so many commitments on our time. Not just from people but from technology, there are so many links to follow, so many videos to watch, and so many emails.
We make the choice to be constantly charged, to have emails come to our phone to review them last thing at night and first thing in the morning.
We set ourselves deadlines that are tighter than needs be.
Something that can help us is to treat emails like postal mail and just check once a day. This is an interesting article.
Cut stress by getting emails once a day
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/article4669570.ece
 
I’ve been busier with my new book than I expected. Alongside some final changes I’ve been asked to create a number of articles for the press – 3 in the last 2 days! Clearly this has been a priority.

The book is out in a month and you can pre-order on Amazon – here’s the relevant page – http://amzn.to/1nqa0SQ

I’m also at that time of year where I do more consultancy, working for the Civil Service Fast Stream as an Assessor and working on Quality Control. I particularly enjoy this quality work which means checking standards and also ensuring that reports that have input from four people all read as if written by one.
 

Personal Branding

More clients are talking about personal branding with me, they recognise that they need to stand out. I worked with Richard earlier this week. He is an Accountant and when we got to talking about how he is different from other Accountants he found it very difficult. What he does is see himself as the same as all other Accountants, but that has him seeing himself as a commodity. It will all be down to price. What he needs is to see himself as something special – to have a brand, to stand out. That will make people want him rather than other accountants.

I’ve set him a homework task where he spends time thinking about all the ways he is the same as other people working in the same area as him, but also the ways that he is different. You might like to try this too.

I like my clients to get great value from our sessions so setting him the task in advance means he has given it a lot of thought before our next session.
As part of my recertification as a Social Brand Analyst I’m reviewing the material I currently use, and working through it as if I’m one of my clients. It’s really usefull to go through and think about things like Vision, Values, Pupose and Passion.

For today let’s think about our Passions.

Passions

Those are the things that get us excited and energised, we lose track of time when we are engaged with these.

  • Think about a time where you were so involved in something you completely lost track of time. What were you doing?
  • Imagine you are at a cocktail party, you hear a group nearby talking about a topic, you want to join in with them, what are they talking about?
  • Imagine you have just won £50M on the lottery. What are you going to do?

Write down your answers and then review
Is there a theme? What are the common elements? Then consider –
How can you bring these passions to work? There will be a way to bring your passion to work so identify something. I’d love to know what you come up with, please add your comments on my blog. Just type them in below

Personal Branding Trends for 2016.

There are 8 great tips from my mentor, William Arruda, you can access his article using this link

http://360rea.ch/personalbrandingtrends2016

 Feedback

I recently got some nice feedback about my newsletter

I’ve been receiving your newsletter for a few years now and I’m writing you to say that I’ve always enjoyed reading it (and still do!). I feel that year after year my confidence has been growing also thanks to your inspiring emails and I want to send you a big “Thank you!” with all my heart.
Keep up the good work! Pat x
 
 
Till next time, Denise x

Published On: January 28th, 2016 / Categories: About Denise, Inspiration /

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