We grew up watching Extreme Makeover and other 1-hour shows that would have us believing that life turns around in a few scenes and a couple of commercial breaks.

Yet for those of us on the authentic success journey know that living our purpose is  hard work.

We embrace that hard work and all the feelings it brings with it: the discomfort, the anxiety, the sense of not knowing, and the knowing of our finite time left. The hard work is as much a part of the success as the spoils.

Every day we take another step towards the vision we set in front of us, until one day, we are there. We arrive at where we set out to be, and suddenly  we realize the transformation that was always taking place. We look back and see the strength we gained, the friends we earned or lost, and the experience we earned all along the way.

So if you feel like your transformation is not taking place, step back and reflect.

Go back ten years, what did you want to do then? How are you living it now? What have you fulfilled and what are you working on lately?

Find where you have transformed and appreciate all the changes you will continue to go through on your journey. That’s just one more move for you to take.

Want a reflection buddy?

Post is a part of the Daily Prompt Challenge Transformation

What you think is what you become. If you are interested in finding and becoming their your best success, it’s important to repeat to yourself positive mottos, affirmation, prayers, and mantras that bring out the best within you. Here are 21 quotes meant to bring out your authentic brand.

On Your Values

Your values are your brand’s center of gravity. Everything you do, believe, and attract in your life rely on the values you hold dearly. Examine your values closely and share them within everything you do.

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

– Ayn Rand

We have many ways of pursuing happiness. While some lead to outcomes that extend our lives, true joy, others can lead us on paths of personal destruction and desolation. How you translate and express your values is the measure of a successful pursuit.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

– Simon Sinek

Your motivations the by-products of your values. If you value family you are motivated to tend to family duties. If you value fun you are motivated to have it. The why you do it results in the actions that people can see.

 When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. Roy E. Disney

A wonderful benefit of discovering your core values is that you give yourself a framework for making decisions. If the decision benefits your value you can be confident in taking it. Define your values early on and often during your success journey to ensure you adjust to the weight of the decisions you will take.

The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.

– William S. Burroughs

We discussed this at our Purposely Chosen Women workshop! Anyone who has read this blog, knows, education is not just stuffing people with fact and theories, it is the drawing out of one’s inner success. [Hence my motto: Draw out your success!] Education is the fuel of entrepreneurship and the foundation of your major is to discover your values, the values of others, and how to align the two in a prosperous way.

 Define what your brand stands for, its core values and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in those terms.

-Simon Mainwaring

On Your Style

Your brand style is everything you do. While it does include dress, it is also your attitude, how you treat others and what you will not put on the negotiation table.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. — John Kenneth Galbraith

There are many people in leadership roles and then there are great leaders, what distinguishes them, thus forming their own style, is the ability to go against the grain because your values will not allow you to act otherwise. This is precisely why your ties to your values are so important as they tie back to your actions, which, when expressed, are the basis of your style.

“Taste and style is beyond clothes. It’s in food; it’s in quality. Working out, healthy bodies, organic food—they’re all part of the same thing.”
-Ralph Loren

Your style is a way of living, so it truly permeates in all the choices we make. Whether it is company goals or personal goals, they will blossom from your sense of values and how well you apply them to all aspects of your life. Strive to see how your values express themselves in all the domains of your life and if you must find ways to innovate.

Your true power is not in your difference but in your consistency of being different. The world will always adjust to consistency, yet struggle with change.”
― Shannon L. Alder

Staying consistent plays a huge role in how you stand out over your success journey. Yet, staying consistent does not mean staying the same, it means staying true to your purpose and values by adjusting when necessary.

Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
-Orson Welles

 

Setting a pre-defined look and feel that encapsulates your brand is a helpful way to be memorable to others. Start a Pinterest board or clothing capsule to simplify your brand and then grow your style from there.

Style is joyful if you allow yourself to have joy.
-Stacy London

Have fun with your style. If you have your values in place, you will be able to experiment and stretch the limits of your actions and decisions. If you are thinking tightly controlled, then your style and demeanor will come across that way. Have fun and find happiness and have a style that attracts that.

On What Others Think

Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.
– Jonathan Lister

We can not control what others think, but we can do our best to communicate with them. This comes from speaking directly to them and to what their values are and what they care about.

If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.
– Fast Company

Social media is a key tool towards communicating your brand with others. Yet, in my line of work, I stumble across many small business owners wary of using social media or adamantly against it or just plain uninterested. A big shift for them is when I align the value they bring to others in real life to the brand they want to build on social media. Social media is an extension of you and the value you bring, making it much more than just an online billboard. Find creative ways to express your value and then translate that to your social media channels.

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is — it is what consumers tell each other it is.
– Scott Cook.

Building off the billboard analogy above, your brand is never completely yours or completely under your control. Know what others think of your brand and be grateful to those who give you honest and constructive feedback.

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
– Seth Godin

This goes back to being consistency. This is the simplest way to build consistency with others.

Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead

Eventually, you may need a team to grow your success. Ensure the people who join your team is committed to your values, and stand firm on their own values. A team of people building a brand could be world-changing.

On Staying Authentic

May your  success journey be long and adventurous. People will connect with you and may even contribute ton your personal growth and change, but staying true to you comes down to you. As you grow to your fabulous success ask yourself: is this true to me?  Your values will make your decision quick and how you express it will develop the style that others talk about.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender, it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.
– Stephen Covey

Patience is a virtue, and a virtue is a value that most people agree upon. Choose patience during your journey because there will be errors and mistakes, but there is no need for self-inflicted harm or aggravation. You are putting thought into who you are and that effort alone is an act of success.

Truth is a point of view, but authenticity can’t be faked.
– Peter Gruber

Sometimes your brand will be skewed by what others say of you, but what will be indisputable is how you act. Stay consistent with who you are and the truth will reveal itself.

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.
– Conrad Hilton

Once you’ve decided to pursue your purpose, don’t quit! Pivot, pause, or pass, but don’t stop the pursuit. You need to maintain your momentum.

Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character, and no public trust.
– Richard Branson

Choosing a style for your brand and living your brand are two separate acts. While it is useful to have a vision of what you want sticking to only presenting the vision, will rob you and your community of your true value. Focus on bringing your value to others and use your vision to enhance what you do, this is where you build your personal depth.

 Everyone who achieves success in a great venture solved each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves and they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They kept going regardless of the obstacles they met.
– W. Clement Stone

Your journey will unfold before you no matter what. From those who never make a move to those who make all the moves, you will be faced with decisions to make about who you are, what you prefer, and how you will act. Branding is a simplified way of giving you and others a tangible understanding of who you set out to be while living on this earth. When you find your purpose and set your values, the obstacles will be worthwhile.

Hey you,

You got the juice. You know it.

I know it.

Your purpose, the one that’s scratching at your spirit, is always ready to be at play. You just need to find ways to let it out and to let it be creative. Lucky for you, if you attach your purpose to goals you can even find ways to make personal achievement within the milestones in your life.

Yet, milestones take movement, and the greater the milestone, the greater the persistent movement and energy you will need to meet it.

Simple enough, but we know that life has a way of throwing other “stones” in our way. They are the obstacles.

The missed connections, broken laptop, endless interruptions, and other technical or non-technical difficulties that delay us momentarily.

Or they could be the big ones, suffering from a loss, a major financial setback, or some other life event that causes you strife.

You want to pursue passions in your life but within the time and energy that you already have. How do you keep a steady momentum to help you achieve anything you set your mind to? How do you get past the bouts of energy followed by low-productivity and distraction?

First, you need to find what’s stopping you from building momentum.

There could be several reasons:

• Lack of purpose
• Lack of process
• Lack of support resources

Lack of Purpose

You need to know why you want to achieve your goal. You need to have a reason greater than any excuse. Then you need to set a purpose for every move you make towards your goal. Constantly reflect on the why behind what you do while fulfilling your goal’s needs.

Lack of Process

When you know what the goal is that you want to achieve, the next step is figuring out exactly when, where, and how you will fit the work into your schedule. Attach your work to life triggers like “I’ll review my strategy after morning coffee or I’ll reach out to new contacts every Friday”. How you shape your schedule will depend on your style.

Need some guidance? Try the Passion to Process workshop.

Lack of Support Resources

Given the greatness of the goal, you will eventually need others to gain further momentum. Resources, in the form or people or organizations, will help you form new connections and open new pathways towards your final vision. You need to think of how you work connects to the larger framework and then find the people who could be key to meet.

There are plenty of great groups online or in person that can be there to support you.

Building momentum takes time. You can do it, and given your effort and ingenuity you will build speed. If you need to press pause on what you’re doing and set aside time to just strategize. The peace will be key to helping you sort yourself and gain clarity.

So what’s stopping you? Comment below or send a private message.

 

Whether it’s your own, the teams, or even all the organisms within the earth’s ecosystem: our work is our energy and the labor of or efforts contributes to our greatness. Take time to be grateful for any and all work you put in towards building your success.

Welcome Success Seeker!

This next one is for you. 

Someone once told me, you attract your self in others. I imagine, with this knowledge in mind, that those who read this blog (many thanks btw!) are a bit like me. In this sense, you might be introverted with an eye for big dreams, ideas, and visions and a passion for placing others in line with their success. Sweet.

I get it, what a rush! The complexity of human life, a life of which you seek clarity and productivity. Not just any productivity, though, but purposeful productivity! The kind that people would gladly do if there were no limits in their way.

Yet, while some of us on the path to success may be confident in our steps forward, others are only beginning their journey. So this next move for you is perhaps the pivotal move you must master in order to move your success forward. That move is:to create. 

What is creation? Such a vast word will need some boundaries for the purposes of this correspondence

creation

Pronunciation: /krēˈāSH(ə)n/

NOUN

The action or process of bringing something into existence Oxford Dictionaries Online

 

 

This sums up the act of success brilliantly. Whatever you are trying to accomplish, it probably has yet to be accomplished. This means it is not yet in existence, so the only way to do so is by creating that existence. To grow in confidence in this act of creation, practice creating anything at all. Whether it’s a blog post, a video, a new recipe, a fun class, or anything that you want to use your two hands to create, do it!

Do it often.

First of all If you reblog this post you help me, I help you and you help your readers, so everyone wins.. There are thousands of good blogs out there and think of all of that we are missing just because they are not visible to us. That’s why I want to encourage you to […]

via Share your blog! — Roberta Pimentel

 

A friend read my  5 free tools article and inquired: how do I use Google Keep as a tool for sustaining success?

First a bit of back story. It has been a long journey to personalizing a system that is flexible enough for the many pivots I take in a day, yet is reliable enough to store my voracious need to collect, organize, and connect different bits of information others or I create. Crafting such a system brings deeper respect for leaders who did it before any internet options. I too remember such a time, when the internet could only be accessed during library hours or 3rd period computer class. So like many leaders, I adapted to using the classic:

Pencil and paper. Winners from the start, but in the end, the techno-lover in me knew there had to be a system that could act as a virtual replacement for my ever-expanding need to realize my mission of showing the world the value of education is abundance. What could that system be?

Enter: Google Keep

Friends and colleagues know, I am well-versed in using Google as a tool to get things done, I am surprised it took me so long to use this app the that captures information and stores it anywhere I can log in with Google. In fact, it was two years ago, when a fellow entrepreneur Erica introduced me to the tool. I tried Evernote, Weekplan.app , Trello, Asana, Workflowly, To-Do, Momentum, and a plethora of other tools and apps, in the end, my enthusiasm for them waned. They seemed to be missing some key component, which turned out to be: integration with my current internet life. 

Success tip: Over the long haul, it’s easier to integrate systems that go with your flow.

How does Google Keep integrate so easily?

• Flexibility – Google Keep allows you to capture notes, video, pictures, voice-to-text recordings, and lists. With a single tap, you start a new post and then you can capture your information in the mood you see fit. In addition, you can easily share via email, color code, or set reminders
• Simplicity – Because of its post-it note style, Google Keep has minimal options and little navigation beyond what is on your screen. This simplicity keeps you focused on capturing the current thought.
• Integration with Google Accounts – My favorite part of Google Keep is that it integrates wherever Google exists. I’m an Android owner so I have a quick app connection, and it is connected to Google Chrome and Chromebook. The best part the notes you take can be connected to Google Drive. Helping quote snippets of ideas become full articles or team documents with an easy transfer.

Tactics for how to use Google Keep:

• Install it on your phone and mobile devices
• Get comfortable with voice commands ideas
• Use reminders strategically
• Let go of perfect
• Have a schedule for reviewing it
• Use a simple color coding system.