Welcome to the November edition of your “Year of Personal Branding“, where I’ve broken down key branding concepts as part of a month-by-month guide to help you with each step of growing (and implementing) your personal brand. As always, I invite you to use these monthly Year of Personal Branding posts as a map that will allow you to navigate all aspects of Personal Branding.
For us Americans, November is the month of Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on what we are thankful for. Oftentimes what we are thankful for is also what we value the most in our lives.
This month, In true Thanksgiving style, we will be looking at your values.
Are you living in accordance with the values you uncovered this year? If you’ve identified discrepancies between your values and how you’ve been living, what needs to change? Of course, this values exploration requires putting aside some time for personal reflection.
But why bother looking at our values?
Here are my top four reasons.
Values bring purpose and meaning into our lives.
Identifying your values and living consistently with them can be a way of injecting purpose, meaning and passion into your brand.
Values lead to a sense of well-being and fulfillment.
Living in congruence with your values can lead to feelings of happiness, fulfillment and well-being. Inversely, when we are acting against our values, we can usually feel that something is off.
Values can be our greatest guide.
They are the leading principles that can guide us through life, kind of like a compass. If we follow our values to choose our jobs, our friends, even what we do in our spare time, chances are we will feel more fulfilled. What’s more, others will sense that we are living in accordance with our values and feel more comfortable in our company.
Values can motivate us.
Values can serve as a great motivator through life, particularly when things get difficult; they can make our hard work and struggle worth the effort. Furthermore, if we identify discrepancies between our behaviours and values, this realization can provide the motivation to help us take action to improve our lives.
To summerize, our values are at the very core of our brands. They embody what we want to be in this world. They represent what we want to stand for. They guide us in making decisions. They are highly individual and personal — and are what make us unique in this world.
For more on assessing your values, check out my blog. You may need to put a little time into contemplating your values, but what they will bring to your personal brand — and your life — will be well worth it. Just the thing to do on a dark November evening!