12.07.16
Resilience and Reinvigorating Yourself
By: Karl R. LaPan, President and CEO, Northeast Indiana Innovation Center
As the new year approaches, have you become restless about your personal brand? Do you have a desire to shake things up, transform yourself or change something in your life? Educational futurists have predicted that the next generation will have 11-17 careers in a lifetime – no, not jobs but careers. Talk about the need for shaking things up. While some might be scared by this prediction, others, like me, are energized by the thought I might reinvent myself more than once in my lifetime!
Innovation is not limited to companies. People are constantly reinventing themselves in the marketplace. Taking control of your personal brand may mean the difference between personal and professional satisfaction and disengagement. Trust me, there is no lack of disengagement in the US workplace. Nearly, 80% of American workers are actively disengaged or disengaged in the workplace. This speaks to our personal need for change and to take control of our life, but to do so, we need to know what we want.
Keep in mind these tips for reinventing and re-energizing your personal brand (and business):
- Find people who make you better and bring out your personal best (be intellectually curious);
- Last night, I heard an actress share the following advice for aspiring performers. She said, “Your passion must be stronger than your fear”. What fears are holding you back? Lean into these fears with your passion;
- Be intentional about becoming the best version of yourself (commit to a personal development plan and a dream list. We all need to dream more);
- What word or words do you want to personally own as representative of your personal brand? Think Volvo and ‘safety’. Think Disney and ‘happiness’. Think Starbucks and ‘third place’. What’s your unique selling proposition?; and
- Remember, you have to choose reinvention. Reinvention is about personal change. You have to break old habits in favor of forming new or different habits. What are you restless about, and what are you open and willing to change? Mental toughness or grit provides some of the staying power necessary to do the hard work of personal reinvention.
Remember, for meaningful personal change to occur, you must have the following: (awareness of the need for behavioral change + willingness to change) x burning platform or major opportunity for change in order to increase the likelihood of success. Is your personal reinvention driven out of crisis or opportunity?
Without personal reinvention, we can easily become stagnant and irrelevant. What actions can you take in 2017 to breathe some fresh air into your personal brand? Start now.
