Business

We live in a highly technological world. And it doesn’t matter in which industry you work, or whether you are an entrepreneur or you have a 9-5 job. Creating (and maintaining) a personal brand is essential. Previously, when you applied for a job, people gave lots of importance to your resume. Now, the first thing people do is google your name and look at your LinkedIn page.

Personal brand over skills

I believe that most people can learn almost anything. And with technology and online platforms, you can even learn a new skill from the comfort of your own home. You (mostly) don’t necessarily need an education from a fancy university to get the job you want. Now don’t get me wrong, when you want to become a surgeon or an architect you need to gain years of education and experience. But lately, there have also been lots of new roles which require you to be more creative. Those skills can be learned. Whether you want to work in finance, or marketing, or try programming, you can find a course online.

That’s why your personality and character are crucial. Because if anyone can learn anything, you need to stand out in other ways. When a company is hiring, they will first look at your resume. But more importantly, they will ask you questions regarding your character. They want to know how you will handle difficult situations and whether you can work in teams for example.

Great things happen when you least expect it

Now that you’ve built your personal brand online. You can even go a step further and showcase your personal brand offline by attending network events. Another great perk of having an online (offline) presence is that you might receive an offer when you aren’t even searching. Just imagine, you attend an event or give a talk about something you already do within your current job. Let’s say you are a project manager and get invited for a panel conversation about leadership. Someone in the audience has their own business and they struggle with getting everybody within the team on the same page. Afterwards, they approach you with an offer to consult their team. How great is that!

You become better for it

If you could take one thing with you from this post. Then please let it be this: by building your online/offline presence you become better for it. By creating a personal brand, you have to present yourself constantly. Whether you attend events, socialize, or write about your expertise, either way, you improve skills like presenting and writing. But you also get to perfect the story you want to tell. As a result you become better at pitching your ideas because you become more of yourself.

To end the reasons for personal branding, here is a video that explains the benefits of personal branding from Steven Bartlett. Link to video.

Source Image: Blazs Ketyi

There is an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In this life, we need to have a team. And a team works best when all the team players have synergy. In this post, I will explain why the concept of Ubuntu is crucial for a team.

The playbook

I discovered this word through the Netflix series: ” The Playbook “. In this series, a couple of coaches tell their stories. One of those coaches was Doc Rivers. At the time he was the coach for the Boston Celtics and the players were all just thinking of themselves. In Basketball, the ego plays a big role. To win a championship, he needed the team to play together as a team. One evening a woman walks up to him and mentions the concept of Ubuntu. He looked it up and was hooked immediately.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an African way of life that holds the value of the group in great regard. The saying goes:

This way you hold each other accountable. But more importantly, you help each other when needed. Doc Rivers translated this to: “I can’t be all I can be unless you are all you can be”. So for the players needed to be at their best game, they needed their teammates to be their best too. As a consequence, they regarded the team as a family and really looked out for each other on and off the field. As a result, they got better as a team.

Not only on the field

Now this is great for a sports team to win. But Ubuntu can also be used in “real life”. Just consider how many teams you’re part of. Family team, friends team, work team. Whether you’re a manager or part of a team at work, you have a responsibility to the team. Now I’m not saying work your ass off for the company until you burn out. But rather, what can you do for others within your team so that they can perform at their best. And therefore you can improve your “A” game.

Source Image: Unsplash, Ian Macharia

Imagine choosing one craft and dedicating your professional life to perfecting that craft. The Japanese lifestyle called Ikigai supports this mindset. And here is what we can learn from it. Once people find their Ikigai, they spend their entire lives perfecting their craft.

Finding you Ikigai

Similar to Dharma the concept of Ikigai contains four principles; What I am good at, What I love, What the world needs, and What I can be rewarded for. Nowadays there are so many different options in jobs and careers that it can be difficult to choose one. And the question is: “Can we have it all?” But the answer to this question is saved for another time.

Regardless of whether you want to do several things in your career or focus on one thing. You still have to start with becoming better at one craft. Take, for example, the best athletes in their field or artists. They might have talent but they also work their asses off.

Reaching a state of flow

It is no secret that when you try to be the best at something, you need to put in lots of time and energy. More importantly, while you’re working on that craft, you need to be completely focused. Some call this state “the state of flow”. In this state, you lose sense of time and get completely hooked by the thing you are working on. It could be, music, drawing, cooking, writing, creating, weaving, or anything else.

The motion picture “Soul” describes this state of flow visually. Joe Gardner is a music teacher but has dreamed of playing piano on stage. In the clip below, Joe can audition for a gig. At first, he is caught off guard a little. But when he plays the piano, he reaches that state of flow.

Attention to detail

Attention to detail is crucial to becoming the best at something. Take the well-known documentary of Jiro Dreams of Sushi where chef Jiro Ono provides his customers with the best sushi possible. In his restaurant, they pay attention to every detail while preparing the food. They even have a technique for how to massage the octopus.

Where else do we recognize perfecting a craft?

Source Cover Image: Unsplash Alva Pratt

We all have 100 good ideas and dreams as humans. Personally, I would like to start my own café every time I walk into a cute coffee place. I already envision myself as the owner and part-time barista welcoming customers. Other times I see something online and I think to myself, I could do a better job at this. I know the audience better. But the truth is: how will we know the outcome if we never try?

Priorities

Let’s start with prioritizing. For me, I have a lot of ideas all the time. But some things are simply just not a priority. Those ideas are fine as a “what could’ve been” thought because they are not at the top of my list. For example, opening up a café is not at the top of my list. One, because to run a café you need to invest a lot of time. Time that I’m not willing to give up on other aspects of my life. Also, in Amsterdam, there are lots of cute cafés, like Yusu. Other things are a priority for me like this platform. I am determined to provide motivational content and curate the information that is already available on the internet. This idea kept coming back to me several times and that’s when I knew this idea was worth pursuing.

Before you try

Ryan Holiday mentioned in the podcast “Deep Dive” that amateurs are obsessed with tools. And honestly, I have been there myself. When I wanted to start a podcast, I first researched what the best equipment would be. When I wanted to create content and write articles, I bought numerous planners. It was an adrenaline rush but it wasn’t encouraging me to actually start. Now don’t get me wrong. I think planning and preparation are very useful but once these tools are used as a way of procrastination it gets downhill from there.

Where to start

Okay so now the fun part. Suppose you have your priorities straight and you are done with all the planning and preparations. Then comes the time to walk to that starting line and take off. But in reality, this can be really scary. No worries below you can find helpful ways to kick-start your idea.

1 | Allow yourself 5 failures a day

Caroline Wanga and Sarah Blakely have something in common. They both see failure as a given. Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx, was encouraged at a young age to fail something every week. Caroline Wanga, CEO of Essence, even allows herself 5 failures a day! She allows herself this many failures before she can make it a bad day. This helps you to bounce back faster from a failure and prevents you from determining the outcome of your day by your mood. Also, when you get good at failing, you are less anxious to try something new. Want to read more about failing? You can find the article here.

2 | The beginner’s mind

In this article, the concept of the beginner’s mind is explained. It basically means that we need to have an open mind to things. Even to things that we have already done in the past. It helps you create curiosity and to start being excited to try new things.

No regrets

Another incentive to start is the realization that if you don’t start, you won’t know how good it gets. We all know the quote: “What if I fail? Oh darling, but what if you fly.” You need to ask yourself whether the cost of not trying weighs heavier than the cost of regret. And with that, I leave you this week. I hope this article was helpful to you!

Source image: Unsplash, Jared Poledna

Now in the previous post, we discussed the step from reacting to acting on a stimulus. In this process, the following components come into play:

• self-awareness
• imagination
• conscience
• independent will

Having a proactive attitude towards a stimulus means shifting the responsibility from the other to yourself. I would like to dive deeper and discuss the concept of taking a proactive attitude. Below you can find practical tips borrowed from the book: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” .

Taking the initiative

Some people are in a situation (which could also be a stimulus) where they would like to change things in their lives. But the initiative to make those changes is still challenging. Sometimes these people are waiting for something to happen or someone to take care of them (it).

Act or be acted upon

If you are not willing to act and take responsibility for a situation/stimulus. Then your environment will shape your situation. When you are faced with adversities for example in your business. Ask yourself these questions: What is our/my response? What are/am we/I going to do? How can we/I exercise initiative in this situation? Disclaimer: this doesn’t mean only thinking positively and saying ” Oh we’ll be alright”. By taking a proactive attitude you face reality but also choose to see the positive side and work towards improving the situation.

Listen to your language

The easiest way to check whether you have a proactive attitude is to listen to your language. And specifcally your choice of words. Examples are:

"I can't do that, I just don't have the time"
"That's me. That's the way I am"
"There's nothing I can do" 

One thing that these sentences have in common is that the person who said it gave all the freedom of choice away. They didn’t take responsibility for their priorities (I know again with the responsibilities). Stephen Covey even wrote: ” That language comes from a basic paradigm of determinism. And the whole spirit of it is the transfer of responsibility. I am not responsible, not able to choose my response ”

One example of changing the narrative to owning responsibilities mentioned is the book is called “The Haves and the Bes”. And will be discussed in the upcoming post.

Source image: Unsplash, Rocco Stoppoloni

Imagine this: someone is blaming or accusing you of something. One of your reactions might be to; be defensive, react the way to other party expects you to react, respond from emotions. In some situations, you may be inclined to think that you are pushed in a corner. We may even feel like we had no choice, that we were forced to respond that way. But the hash truth is that we always have the freedom to choose our responses.

We are responsible for our actions.

It may be a bitter pill to swallow. Because it is easier to react instead of act (I’ll come back to the difference). It is easier to say: “That person was pushing me to say this or that”. Or ” That person made me so angry/sad/furious I had to say it”. “That person was attacking me and I had to stand up for myself.” But in all those sentences you blame someone else. Now I’m not saying that you don’t have the right to defend yourself, but it is your responsibility to choose how you respond.

Space between stimulus and response

Now between a stimulus (= whatever made you angry/sad/furious) and your response there is an empty space. Viktor Frankl refers to that space as “man has freedom to choose”. You get to elaborate how you want to respond and what the best way forward is. Stephen R. Covey best describes this freedom in his book: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

Within the freedom to choose are those endowments that make us uniquely human. In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination, the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality. We have conscience, a deep inner awareness of right and wrong, of the principles that govern our behavior, and a sense of the degree to which our thoughts and actions are in harmony with them. And we have independent will, the ability to act based on our self-awareness, free of all other influences.  
                                                                                                                                                                              - Stephen R. Covey

Act instead of react

So basically when you react to a stimulus you immediately respond. Which is equivalent to talking before you think. But the better option might be to act on the stimulus. This means that you spend some time thinking about your response, with self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will. Which is equivalent to thinking before you speak.

Source image: Unsplash, Nadine Shaabana

We hear it all the time. You shouldn’t trust someone’s words but their actions instead. But how many times do we hold ourselves accountable to this? Isn’t it the gap between our values and actions that is holding us back from what we want?

Where is the gap between values and action

Let’s start by identifying what you value most.

• Choose your top 3 values. Here is a list of values, if you need inspiration.
• For each of the values, write down what behaviors belong with it.
• Write down your daily activities. Which actions are reoccurring on a daily or weekly basis?
• Is the behavior for the second and third bullet aligned? If not, find the mismatch

Close the gap

Whatever behavior is in line with your values act upon it. If you stick to this, you will live by your core values and thus find success and contentment. Simple as that to close this gap between values and action.

But what if you are not pleased with the outcome? Or what if you don’t want to let go of certain actions?

Constantly pivot

The answers to the questions above are simple: change your values. It could be that you thought a certain characteristic was important to you but in reality it wasn’t. If you want to find out more about what’s important to you click here. It could also be that over time your values changed. Either way, the crucial thing is always aligning actions with values.

Image: Unsplash, by Jeremy Bishop