Or at Least to Your Sweet Spot of Life Success

In this time of constantly negative headlines and challenging economic news around the country, all of us need to look inside ourselves for strength.

That’s why we need to seize “our” day and remember the strengths and values we bring to the table every day – with our families, friends, co-workers and especially ourselves.

Maintaining a consistent personal brand may rely on seizing the “moment” throughout your day. This moment maybe showing colleagues your calmness as a work crisis swirls around your office. It also may be defined as how you react to an unexpected request by your teenager. Or even how you positively change your driving behavior after you get a speeding ticket. There are many things that make up your personal brand and how folks react to you. Here is an example how I have successfully traversed though challenges.

When I was younger (I am now nearly 50), I wanted to be in control of everything in my life and seize every moment of the day. This sounds great, doesn’t it? It is only natural we want to be in control of all aspects of our lives. I found, though, that I was expending so much energy trying to be in total control that I was losing my resilience edge. Also, having a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy), I found there was life control only to a certain point. Sometimes my body – not my mind – dictated how I was going to do on a particular day.

There also were just some things I could not control totally at work, home and life in general that were reducing my resilience on things I could ultimately control.

I thought, for example, I was in control of my most recent work life. I was doing great, with fantastic reviews, an “essential” tag placed on me, terrific compensation and much admiration of my peers throughout the company. There, of course, was the awful recent downturn in the economy, but I thought my exemplary performance would keep me in control of my fate. Man, did I have a lot to learn…

Within a matter of a few months of being “essential,” I became expendable no matter how much effort expended and control I thought I had. With no fault of the company, it had to cut to the bone including me. The lesson for me was there are some things – great and small – out of a person’s total control.

I hoped this would be my last company I would ever work for. I found you can never feel totally secure at work even with an A+ work performance record.

I have moved on to have success in many other areas, including life resiliency training and this award-nominated blog – THANK YOU! I have adapted my control definition, and stayed in personal control of being strong, nimble and resilient. That is, continuing to seize every moment of the day in a slightly more realistic way. That is, I’ve adapted my personal brand to outside circumstances out of my control.

Being nimble, adaptable – and more realistic - in all circumstances – will allow you to stay resilient, in control and strongly show the resolve of your personal brand. How do you rate your personal bran nimbleness?

Please think through this carefully and remember that you have ultimate control of your attitude and how you approach life…in truth, that’s it. Both are very important to the essential fabric of your personal brand. Controlling your attitude is especially important with the typical challenges of not feeling in ultimate control of your work life, and in some respects, your personal life.

Once I understood this, I was more successfully able to navigate through the valleys, hills and peaks all of us face everyday. Even though I have a physical disability, my goals in life are quite similar to yours – the pursuit of happiness and a safe, secure life for my family. Your strength and personal brand will help you through the good times and the inevitable bumps in life…

Look forward to talking with you again next week!

To find more of my career and life resiliency articles, please visit www.examiner.com. My web page is http://www.examiner.com/x-13474-Minneapolis-Career-Resiliency-Examiner.  To get a bit more info about me, I suggest you visit my Linkedin page -  http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_side_pro. If you have a Linkedin profile, please invite me to join your network. I will enjoy connecting with you.

I am connecting other social networking sites to my blog for greater readership and access. The first is  also will be connecting various sites to my blog. Here is the first one - <a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/m4hxezr3b3? rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>.

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By Steve Beseke, beseke1@earthlink.net

Knowing Yourself Helps Others See Your Potential

Many of us spend too much time on what we could have done, or thinking about our perceived personal and professional weaknesses. We, of course, can learn new strategies as we pursue our next great work or life adventure. I have found dwelling on the past or not getting through my shortcomings can have a spinning affect on me – one that does not allow me to move consistently forward.

To stay resilient and shine a bright light on your personal brand in these challenging times, all of us need to focus on our strengths as a person, spouse, parent, friend and co-worker. This is especially true for many of us who have been seriously affected by recent layoffs, which are unfortunately gaining speed in our country today. Your personal brand and worth do not diminish because you may have lost your job…

- Adapting to new challenges always means looking at ways we can be a better person. Focusing on the past and any weakness(es) you see in yourself will diminish the fantastic person that you are everyday – and not let folks see you unlimited potential.

That is why I encourage you to think about one strength you see in yourself and how this positively affects your life. In fact, when you wake up in the mornings this week, let’s all try to remember this strength and the good people that we are.

- Resiliency and adaptability is sometimes putting the past in perspective and creating a sense of future hope. Identifying your strengths will highlight your personal brand and the terrific assets you bring everyday to yourself, family and friends. As a person with a disability (Cerebral Palsy), I could dwell on my life challenges. But what is the point? I have overcome any negatives with my body to concentrate on the positives of myself.

No matter if you are disabled or not, you can overcome any life/career issues by remembering the resilience you bring to the table everyday. Please think of one positive aspect about you and write a short paragraph on why this is important in your life and career. I challenges you to write down one of your resilient aspects for six weeks. At the end, you’ll have a wonderful snapshot of who you are and the wonderful skills you can bring to your life and career.

- I heard someone say once: “You can’t always fix your weaknesses but you can definitely improve on your strengths.” Focusing too much on weaknesses will expend far more needed resilient energy than continually showing the world your strengths – and diminish your brand.

Highlighting these strengths will allow each of us to tackle the variety of daily issues we face – and the uncertainty all of us may have in this economic perfect storm.

Truly knowing yourself will help differentiate you from your peers, co-workers and others. Not many of us have ultimately know ourselves. If you try my six-week adventure looking at yourself – see my my highlighted sections above, you’ll find that people will begin to see the real you – because you will know who you are!

Good luck and we will see you next week. Also, please check out my examiner.com articles in the Minneapolis career and woekplace section.

I’m so inspired by the thousands of you worldwide that check out my blog on a monthly basis. Just wanted to let you know that I am now including articles on www.examiner.com for your additional convenience. The link is http://www.examiner.com/x-13474-Minneapolis-Career-Resiliency-Examiner. I’d appreciate checking out my posts often and bookmarking my page. I will be posting at least two articles per week and have one posted right now.

Thanks so much for your continued support, and I always look forward to your very insightful comments on my blog or sent to me at my e-mail address – beseke1@earthlink.net.

I will have a new resiliency article posted by Monday, the 15th!

I also will be connecting various sites to my blog. Here is the first one - <a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/m4hxezr3b3″ rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>.

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By Steve Beseke, beseke1@earthlink.net

Performing a job to make enough money to buy a house that is too big, a car that is too fancy, or just to truly enjoy that much-deserved vacation. All of us make money for different reasons. What many of us also have in common is that making money is sometimes more important than the passion we have for our current job or career. We have all been there. 

I’ve always wondered: Why can’t we have a job that we love and make the amount money we need at the same time. Well, you know what: We can.

It takes the confidence, determination and passion to understand your personal brand and how to use it to your advantage. I am the first one to admit that my life confidence wavers sometimes. As a person who grew up with a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy) I was relentlessly teased by kids because of my differences. Even at nearly age 50, some of those scars can still rear their ugly marks and cause me to periodically lose my confidence in some situations.

No matter my issues, though, I always have to take hold of my career confidently or I will not succeed. Whether I am passive or proactive, I do my best to find work that I can be truly passionate.

Sometimes, it is easier said than done. As you assess your personal brand, please think through the following suggestions and try to apply each to your work (or even personal) situation.

 Having Confidence To Do You Really Want?

- Personal Branding truly means having consistent confidence in yourself. In my 25+ year work career, I’ve had countless successes and a few challenges along the way. When I’ve had challenges with my physical disability, career and/or life, I have found the most important key is to have trust in myself. This unyielding confidence to successfully pull through any situation has been important for me – whether I have smacked my head against a granite floor after tripping, or had a huge success with a work situation.

- As I said, maintaining at least a baseline of confidence in good and not so good times is THE most most important resiliency/adaptability factor that allows me to continue my work and life everyday.

- As I reach a half century this year, life has had its moments where I’ve wanted to shut the world out because I’ve momentarily lacked the confidence in myself. This may have been because I had just tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and fallen. (My balance is sometimes affected by my physical disability – Cerebral Palsy.) Or, I just had a conversation with my daughter that I knew could have gone better. Or, I had just recently been laid of from a wonderful job I truly loved.

- All of us have such issues – great and small – we face everyday. They can truly affect the confidence in ourselves. To help maintain resilience, I have highlighted below  a few of my successful confidence strategies that you may want to apply to your everyday needs.

I’d suggest you think about the following, and try at least one strategy soon to help stay resilient and confident. Because remember: Your most important personal brand asset is you.

- Finding one positive about yourself each day. O.K., I am not positive about myself all the time. I’d almost have to be robotic and be programmed. But, every day, I try to find at least one thing I did very well the previous day. This may be helping a colleague network to find a better job, knowing I treated my daughter fairly in a conversation about improving her grades, or (simply) that I exercised and liked the way my body reacted.What is one simple or complex action yesterday that you felt confident about in your life? 

- Stop sweating the small stuff. I try to avoid sweating the daily small stuff that may lead me to lose a bit of confidence in myself. Whether that may be not worrying I am a couple minutes late for a meeting because I hurt my back getting out of the car, not getting one of my Top Five list of things done I promised myself, or forgetting to pet my wonderful dogs as I leave for work. Developing an effective personal brand also means knowing what you can truly control. Without this understanding, you will not get mission-critical items accomplished and people will see you in a lesser light. What small stuff will you try to avoid to keep your confidence on the right level each day?

- Liking Yourself. I am the first one to admit that I don’t always like myself every minute of every day. I make mistakes I regret, I don’t always see possibilities when they are in front of my face, or I am just having a bad hair day. Maintaining a consistent personal brand does not mean that we need to be perfect.

- No matter what happens, though, I always remember what is truly important in my life – loving my beautiful wife, teaching my wonderful daughter the values she will carry throughout her life, or talking with the great friends I have had for so many years. Such examples are keys to being happy with myself and successfully getting past certain times where I don’t always see myself in the best light. Thus, I am building and maintaining the inner workings of my individual resiliency and personal brand.

§      What do you like about yourself? I suggest thinking through such questions, and trying to maintain the right amount of confidence in all parts of your life. There will always be days where your confidence wanes and your resiliency disappears. But just remember the love and emotional value of your family and friends, and the good that you do at work and throughout your life. Your personal brand depends on it!

A famous philosopher once said: “Maintaining one’s confidence and finding your true passions are ultimately the gift of liking yourself no matter what external factors get in the way.”

Especially at work, finding your niche or passion may mean staying happy and successful in a job while making enough money to enjoy the important things life. Knowing this will help you define your “spot on” personal brand that can increase your resiliency in so many positive ways.

So, what is your passion or niche?

Look forward to visiting with you again next week…