Setting Realistic Personal Branding “New Years Resolutions” for 2019

According to an article in the New York Times, one third of individuals who make “New Year’s resolutions” don’t make it past the end of January. The author indicated that resolutions fail because they aren’t the right resolutions. Specifically:

1. It’s a resolution established because someone else is telling you to change. Like a mother-in-law telling you to get fit and lose some weight.
2. It’s not specific enough. For example: I’m going to go to the gym.
3. Your plan isn’t do-able and realistic – like, I am going to hire a personal trainer and a fitness coach, go to three exercise classes a week and start a Keto diet.

It’s the time of year for us to reflect upon what we did well to deliver on or be consistent with our personal brands and to set some targets for strengthening it in 2019. Spend no more than 30 minutes thinking through and writing down the first things that come to mind when answering these questions:

• How pleased am I with how I presented myself and showed up this year?
• What are the three things / accomplishments that I am most proud, and what are the common threads between them?
• What were my most regretful moments, what triggered them and how did they reflect upon my brand?
• What are the three most important things that I learned in 2018 and what made them so important?

Channel these answers into some reasonable personal branding goals for 2019 that address your performance (what you deliver) and perception (how others view you). Because remember, performance + perception = your brand promise. You can ask yourself:

• How can I be more consistent for my customers or clients (performance)?
• How can I shift my time management so that it’s consistent with my brand (performance)?
• How do I offset triggers that affect my decision-making (performance)
• What can I do to address my image (perception)?
• Are there simple actions I can take to improve others’ perceptions of me (perception)?

Be realistic – choose one or two small commitments and put one foot in front of the other in delivering upon them. Celebrate the small wins. Personal branding and reputation management is now a sprint, it’s a marathon.

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