Michael D. Brown
Copyright © by MOTIVATION magazine. All rights reserved.
Knowing your aspirations will help you filter out the stuff/things that will block your success.
Aspiration means having particular ambitions and then setting out to achieve these goals. This is your purpose, to fly high and soar to greater heights! Knowing your aspiration allows you to tailor-build your personal brand; otherwise you run the risk of building a brand that doesn't help you reach your aspiration. Remember - if you aim at nothing, you're guaranteed to hit it!
To better visualize aspiration, think about how aspiration applies to building the home of your dreams. What architectural style is this home? How many rooms does it contain? How spacious are the grounds, and are there amenities like a garage, tennis court or swimming pool? On a more detailed level, does your dream home feature hardwood floors or carpeting? What kind of fixtures are in the bathrooms? Is there a standalone kitchen table or an island?
If you don't know all these answers before you start building your dream home, the project will quickly go off track and you'll wind up with a poorly designed mishmash of ideas and styles. Or possibly even worse, you will let a contractor tell you what your dreams for your house are, then you'll wind up with a home that suits someone else's dreams, but not yours.
The same is true of your brand. Without first realizing your own aspiration, you will have no framework for building your brand, and you will wind up with either a poorly defined brand that does not really tell potential clients and partners anything about who you are or what you do, or a brand that has been defined by someone else.
Realize your aspiration
Aspiration is really a two-part entity: it is something that must be found and then realized. Many people have an aspiration, but relatively few genuinely find an aspiration that truly represents everything in life that they are most passionate about. Even fewer move on to achieve an aspiration once they have found it! The closer your aspiration can align with your passion, the greater the chances for sustainable success!
And not having an aspiration means not knowing what you want, so how do you expect to measure your success without one? If you truly don't know what you want out of life, make finding out your top priority. Then go back and start building your personal brand. This way you will have a realistic chance of succeeding and a way to measure how well you're doing!
How Slammed is Your Door?
Keeping with the theme of building a home, let's measure how slammed (or hopefully open) the door to your aspiration is. Are you open to examining your innermost hopes, dreams and skills to determine what ultimate achievements you aspire to, or have you closed yourself off and decided to "wing it" or follow someone else's dreams instead? Rate how strongly you agree that each of the following fresh statements applies to you today from 1-5, with 1 equaling strongly disagree and 5 equaling strongly agree:
1. I have identified an aspiration that accurately reflects where I would like to take my career and my life.
2. My most trusted friends, family, colleagues and advisors are aware of my aspiration and I have solicited their feedback.
3. My aspiration aligns with my vision of what my perfect day would be like and there are no significant gaps between the two.
4. I have the passion necessary to achieve my aspiration.
5. I have the skills necessary to achieve my aspiration.
6. I have the determination necessary to achieve my aspiration.
6.5 I have written my aspiration down in more than one place so I am constantly reminded of it.
Now that you've taken the test, let's analyze your score:
If you scored from 7-13, your door is slammed shut. You may have fantasies about having a great career or richly rewarding personal life, but have made no efforts to make them come true or even to see if they really represent what you want in life.
If you scored from 14-20, your door is open a crack. You probably have some firm idea of what you would like to accomplish, but aren't making a real attempt to go out and do it.
If you scored from 21-26, your door is open halfway. You know what you want and have taken some basic steps to get it. Maybe you earned the right college diploma, or know someone important in the field. You're probably at the stage where you're "looking into" achieving your aspiration. And when you're looking into something, it usually means you have an outside vantage point.
If you scored from 27-33, you door is three-quarters open. You have followed most or all of the 6.5 steps to achieving your aspiration and have a credible shot at making it happen someday. Remember there is a difference between going through the motions and putting your heart into something!
If you scored a 34 or 35, your door is wide open. Congratulations! You have fully integrated your aspiration into all aspects of your life and have made it your number one daily priority. If you have not achieved it yet, you are on a clear path and have already passed several key milestones. You understand that goals are there to be met and surpassed, not held as an ideal.
2.5 Keys to Unslamming Your Door
Just because your door may not currently be wide open does not mean it has to stay that way. Even a door that is stuck due to years of staying closed can be pried open with the proper tools.
So to help you unslam your door, or keep it wide open if it's already that way, I offer the following 2.5 fresh keys to opening even the most stubbornly slammed door so the whole world can come on in.
Key 1: Identify three of the most successful people in the area of branded expertise that you are going to capture - While some people like to attribute the success of others as "luck," this is really just jealousy talking. True success never occurs through simple luck. Even in the case where someone assumes control of a successful family business or inherits a large sum of money, if that person doesn't have what it takes to succeed, they will fail. Many a family business or fortune has been quickly squandered when an unqualified heir inherited the reins!
Likewise, a "lucky break" will be of no help to a person who is unwilling or unable to recognize the opportunity, seize it, and then capitalize on it to achieve success. Show biz legend has it that the great leading man Burt Lancaster got his first big Broadway role because a casting director mistook him for another actor. Even if this is true, do you think Lancaster could have parlayed that role into a towering stage and film career if he were a dud in front of the audience and camera?
So now that you're ready to recognize success is never an accident, identify three of the most successful people in your area of branded expertise. Think big. Don't restrict yourself to the three most successful people you personally know, or who live in your region. If you want to be a success in real estate and you live in Omaha, Nebraska, you won't do much better than making Donald Trump one of your three targets.
Key 2: Research what they do to stay fresh - You have identified three major success stories in your area of branded expertise. Great. Now it's time to do a little homework. We live in the "Information Age," an age where the whole notion of privacy has changed and personal details of almost anyone's life can be found. We'll save the debate about the overall ethics and implications of this situation for another time. Right now, we will use it to our advantage.
Depending on whom you have identified and what field you're in, researching what they do to stay fresh could be as simple as a trip to your local library or bookstore, or may involve a little more legwork. To stay with the Donald Trump example, he has never been shy about trumpeting the secrets to his success for the world to hear (for a price, of course!) Trump has written numerous books about his business philosophies and strategies, and there has been at least one major biography written about him, as well.
Key 2.5: Make sure that everything about you communicates and exudes freshness - After following the first two steps to freshness, it's time to take the additional "half-step" of making sure that everything about you communicates and exudes freshness. Like it or not, image and appearance are extremely important, and unless you look and act the role of fresh, you can identify and research how other people have achieved aspirations similar to yours and not get anywhere with that knowledge.
TGAPTM - The Great Action Plan
I will conclude today's look at aspiration with a Great Action Plan aimed at helping close the gap between following your aspiration and following someone else's aspiration or following nothing at all. To find your aspiration, you need to examine your innermost passion and determine what it is you are truly best at. Then align your aspiration with these qualities and you can't lose!
Now using the information above, what will you do to close the GAP? What's your Great Action Plan for determining, following and achieving an aspiration that will yield you personal, economic and professional success?
What will you do today? __________________________________
What will you do this week? _________________________________
What will you do this month?_________________________________
Hello! What do you want that will help you to tailor-build your personal brand? We'd love to hear and learn from you. Please feel free to share your contribution on this topic by commenting below. Thank you in advance for sharing.
About the Author: Michael D. Brown, MBA
Michael D. Brown, MBA, is a management expert and consultant, sought after motivational speaker, and best-selling author. Through Michael's signature programs and commitment to delivering results both through and with people, he has helped a number of Fortune 500 companies create and deliver world-class experiences that led to double-digit growth to their bottom lines.
For information on the author click on the following link: Michael D. Brown.
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