How to align your goals with your personal brand
Living your personal brand. It’s the activity of being yourself.
But in a world that’s so good at telling us who we SHOULD be, what we SHOULD want, what our goals SHOULD look like, somehow the concept of just being ourselves gets lost.
Every day we’re being sold that someone else knows better than us what we should want.
- As entrepreneurs, we should all want $10k months.
- As employees, we should all be happy with a job that “pays the bills”.
- As managers, we should all be focused on earning the next promotion.
- As business owners, we should all desire to have a brand shoot with a huge house and a Ferrari.
How many of these things are things YOU actually want? How many of them make you feel like you’re doing what you’re meant to do? Making the contribution you’re supposed to make?
I believe in people deciding what their OWN success looks like. And it doesn’t start with the definition of success that SOMEONE ELSE gives you. It starts with YOUR definition of success. So let’s take a look at how we can use our personal brands to create that definition, and turn that into GOALS - that are unique to us - that will get us there.
Knowing Your Values
Now, unfortunately, one blog post on defining your values might not get you the clarity you need here. Values work is an on-going investment which also includes giving yourself permission for your values to evolve as you change and grow as a human. But here are some places you can start:
Notice what gives you JOY
Notice what BRINGS you energy
Notice what makes you feel ALIGNED
Notice what FRUSTRATES you
Notice what DRAINS your energy
When we feel joy, whatever is happening is aligned with our personal brands. It speaks to how WE think the world should be. And when we are happy, what we think is in alignment with what is. Same goes with the things that bring you energy, and the situations where you feel aligned. When you look at these things and discover WHY things feel so right, it’s a sneak peek into your personal values.
On the flip side, when you can investigate why things feel WRONG, it’s an equal opportunity to reveal your personal values. When we feel frustrated, or drained, it’s because whatever is happening is MISALIGNED with our values. We’re experiencing things we wouldn’t choose. And when we wouldn’t make that choice, it’s because it’s not aligned with our values.
So investigation on both spectrums is important. And will likely point to the SAME values at the end of the day.
Defining What Your Values Mean To You
Knowing your values is important, but equally important is actually DEFINING what those values mean to you.
When it comes to the definitions, there are two parts:
Creating your definition of what that value IS
Creating your definition of what that value MEANS to you
Let’s go with an example here. One of my core values is authenticity. To me, what that means is:
Being the real me, in all scenarios, and allowing others to be the real them in all scenarios; accepting that, and loving that.
For someone else, the definition may be different. Your own definition of the same value might be different. No definition is right or wrong. It’s simply YOURS. And when in comes to living your values, only your definition matters.
The second piece is where you get to decide how big a role this values play for you. Are you willing to do certain things to bring this value to life? What are you NOT willing to sacrifice when it comes to this value?
In my example, authenticity means EVERYTHING to me. If I can’t be authentic with a person, I don’t hang out with them. If I can’t be authentic in a work environment, I leave it (and have). If I can’t be authentic with a client, they aren’t the right fit. If I can’t be authentic in an online community, I’m out.
It means enough to me that I’m invested in aligning my actions with that value.
You might go through this exercise with values that DON’T mean enough to change your actions. This is also fine. In that case, I would encourage you to look at whether it’s really a CORE VALUE for you. A core value meaning that it’s actually based on YOU and your personal brand, not something someone else told you you should care about ;)
Defining Your Success
Once you know the definition of your values and which mean the most to you, you can then use that information to extrapolate what success looks like for you.
It’s most important here to use YOUR values vs. those that we’ve heard from so many people over the years.
I distinctly remember a conversation with my sister, who was so distraught that she was 30, not married, and didn’t own a house. I remember saying, “why does any of that matter?” and knowing that the answer was tied NOT to her and her happiness, but what society teaches us is “acceptable”.
This activity is NOT related to what anyone else says. It’s about YOU defining what matters to you.
For me and my authenticity value, this plays out on two fronts:
How often I feel authentic
How often I create spaces for other people to feel authentic
I know that when I do both of those things, I get that feeling of alignment. That flow state that people always talk about.
And it doesn’t have anything to do with the type of house I have, the type of car I drive, whether or not I have a personal chef, or live in the mountains, or how much money I made this month. Honestly, I could have all of THOSE things, and if one and two above weren’t checked, those things would feel empty.
Remember, this isn’t about anyone but YOU. It’s your success, and only you can define it.
Creating Your Goals
Once you have created your definition of success - the one that doesn’t include what anyone else thinks - THEN you can move to goals (and strategy and tactics, which I’ll leave for another article).
Think about it like this: if success is based on how often I feel authentic and create authentic spaces for others, HOW can I do that?
Now obviously, I’m using my example from above, and you should fill in the question based on what success looks like for you. And once you have, you get to brainstorm on how YOU would do those things.
Again, society (backed by marketing) loves to tell us that someone else knows how to do this better than we do. But here’s the thing. Once you’ve tapped into your WHY at this level, no one has a better idea on how to execute this than you do.
We each have a unique creativity that’s attached to our values and our success. So here again, it’s important for you to investigate how YOU would do this.
What would you do?
This is the question that matters at the end of the day. Not what someone else would do to obtain the same success. But what YOU would do. It takes some practice to get confident answering this question, but once you do, you’re truly OWNING your personal brand. And THAT’S the secret to YOUR success.
If you’re interested in walking through this exercise with a facilitator, sign up for the next Align Your Goals with Your Personal Brand Interactive Workshop. I’ll walk you through each of these steps so you can actually PRACTICE creating your goals this way :)
Or, feel free to book a Discovery Call, if you’d rather receive this support in a 1:1 coaching environment.
I can’t wait to see your authentic goals come to life!
