series: personal branding - claiming you

I'm having one of those existential crisis moments where I'm feeling a little off track, waylaid, discombobulated. I know these feelings are real and important to my journey, so I'm trying not to stick my head in the sand and ignore them. I'm trying to sit with them a bit and figure out what they're here to teach me.

That said, it's in my nature to act. In every sense of the word, I'm all about motion. So even just trying to sit, for me, becomes an act of deliberate, paced, thoughtful movement. But in and of itself, this all goes back to the theory of knowing oneself well enough to start over, to find your way forward once again.

So I went back to my study of personal branding for some clarity. As you know, I've been reading (rather ADD-like) several books dealing with some pretty intense introspection and self-study. One of them has led me down the path of analyzing my own personal brand. I've written a little bit about why I think this is so important for each of us, and the timing couldn't be better. We have countries, policies, economies, lifestyles, workstyles all metamorphosing around us each day, and it's becoming all the more relevant to sit back and figure out where we want to play in what will become our new world. The essence of who we are and what drives us as individuals informs what we will do, what we will contribute in our lives from here out. It's an exciting opportunity to be very deliberate in our exploration and our launch forward.

We begin by figuring out what motivates us and gets us out of bed each day. One book takes you through the process of writing down (and all that goes along with that) what your personal values and passions are. It's one of many steps in crafting your own personal brand. I loved this exercise because it really encouraged me to think about ME: who I have become, who I still dream of being. But capturing it in specific words and descriptions.

Here's what I've come up with so far (and believe me, this may be a work in progress for some time to come). Following Robin Fisher Roffer's descriptions in Make a Name for Yourself, I'm calling values the "metronome for my personal behavior- what I stand for, what I want to live up to, what I consider most important to my inner life and well-being." I started by revisiting some old journals and work I did with my therapist and career coach. Then I crafted a laundry list of what I thought my personal values to be: authenticity, success, experiencing & learning, connectedness, creativity, acceptance, having fun, risk taking, kindness, love, integrity. These each speak to me in individual as well as comprehensive ways. But Roffer challenges you to boil it down to its essence and come up with three or four core values, and then figure out what each means to you. (Because as her examples demonstrate, integrity might mean something slightly different when gazed at through your lens than it is through mine.) So this wasn't a quick exercise as you might guess. It has taken place over years and months and days, in fits and starts. But I think I'm getting close.

My core values are:

• authenticity - which for me means honoring and protecting my own truth, acting from a place of strength and gratitude (not fear), not being defined by anything "other"
• empowerment - giving myself room to learn and grow, practicing well-being, inspiring others to thoughtful action, working for the well-being of others
• connectedness - nurturing my inner social butterfly, being part of a community, helping others succeed though my efforts, respecting the resources of the earth, exploring and understanding the bigger world, listening
• creativity - allowing myself time and space to let my passions out to play, finding new ways to do necessary things (in life, in business, whatever)

Gulp. While sounding quite accurate, it also helps put a lot of stuff in perspective for me. And I see plainly how big I really am, despite the days when I feel small. These beautiful things are the central core of who I am and how I interact with the world. If I work against these values, I gum up mentally, slow down emotionally, start to fail physically. When I honor these values, I simply soar. I have more fun, I am better to myself and others and I feel as if I'm in my own "right place." Now why on earth is it so hard to remember these things and keep them on our mental front burner? I vow that I will take this hard work and make sure to not let fear creep in and somehow diminish the importance of these as I move forward.

Next are passions. You know, what gets you all jazzed up and want to bounce off the walls? Roffer describes passions as more "of the world" than values, which have more "inner significance." These were slightly easier to put my finger on, as those of you who know me well will see below. It's the stuff that just makes me hum with anticipation, busy-ness, excitement, motion, storytelling and gong-sounding. My passions are:

• food - cooking it, eating it, selling it, buying it (growing it too, although not necessarily in a dirt-under-the-nails sort of way)
• travel - experiencing places and people (and food, while I'm on a roll)
• learning - reading, studying, getting out of my comfort zone
• networking - bringing the people I love and support together, using social media, spinning the web that we women spin so well
• green issues - specifically related to what goes in and on our bodies
• putting products and services in the hands of the people who need them
• technology for good, not for evil (as in, useful, relevant, helpful technology; not just because Apple/Dell/Best Buy said so)

Many steps to go, but these were really great for me today. It's easy to forget ourselves for a minute (or a month, sometimes) and feel disconnected, irrelevant, useless. It's uplifting to be the wind beneath my own wings just by reminding myself of how far I've traveled on this path and where my road is headed. I'm claiming myself - becoming me - more and more every day and for that, I'm truly grateful. What about you?