What’s Your Personal Brand?

Creating a brand for yourself means creating an image that represents you as a unique individual. To many, this seems like a daunting task. These days, we have a wide array of skills, different personalities that we activate when we are around certain people (you know what I’m talking about), and other unique attributes about us, so we may feel it’s difficult to create a narrowed-down, specific, and differentiated brand. Let’s reflect for a minute, by asking ourselves these questions:

What are you an expert at?

What do people remember most about you?

What is your skill set?

What makes you different?

You may not know the answer to any of these questions yet. But everybody has a personal brand, whether they designed it, or whether it was assigned to them by default. So let’s take control of ourselves and our own images, by crafting strong brands that define our best selves.

The good news is that you don’t have to narrow your brand down to just one attribute about yourself. Your brand can be a multitude of skills, strengths, and personality traits that make you unique and memorable. When I analyze myself and my brand, I think of all of the things that I can offer that make me unique: I am an extremely optimistic person who applies that same optimism to exceed the goals I set for myself, I am a risk-taker who likes to get out of my comfort zone and tackle seemingly impossible problems, I am an active listener while being an engaged and keen advocator, I am eager to learn and receptive to feedback, and I like to find joy and adventure in every life journey. Although we may not realize it, these qualities about ourselves create our brand.

A great tactic to get you brainstorming your personal brand is to consider: What do people say about me when I leave the room?

What people say about you is gathered from the messages and signals that you send to others everyday, whether they are intentional or not. Do you come to meetings late and come to work dressed unprofessionally? This shows people that you don’t respect their time and you don’t respect the work environment around you, making your personal brand a negative one to others.

On the other hand, when you come to a meeting with your presentation prepared, engage your teammates, answer questions comprehensively, and smile throughout your presentation, people will think you are a hardworking, professional, optimistic, and team-oriented person, giving off a positive brand. Most importantly, if what your coworkers think about you and what you think about yourself are aligned, then you have a really strong brand.

You may ask, how do these opinions and assumptions get formed about you by your coworkers? Personal brand is highly dependent on these 5 interrelated elements:

1. Competency: What is the skill set that is unique to you? What do you bring to the table that others may not? In what areas are you an expert?

2. Credibility: What is your background? (i.e. work experience, college major, certifications, coursework). What is your story, and why are you the best person for the job?

3. Consistency: Will you consistently deliver high quality results? Are your determination and work ethic unwavering? Do you take accountability for your actions and the tasks to which you commit?

4. Currency: Do you reciprocate help to others? Do you look to provide help to others first, and do you exchange ideas with those around you to increase collaborative efforts?

5. Communication: Are you honest, open, and transparent? Do you provide constructive feedback? Do you foster a safe, collaborative environment?

Really take a minute to think about the questions posed above. These 5 C’s formulate your personal brand, reputation, and career development opportunities in the future.

But how do you take your unique brand and market it to others around you? A crucial part of creating a strong brand is being your own advocate, by promoting yourself on social media platforms. But be careful what you post: 55% of recruiters have reconsidered a candidate based on what they find on social media, with most (61%) of those double-takes being negative. The best way to be sure you’re promoting yourself in a positive way is to do the headline test, asking yourself: Would my reputation be ruined if the whole world saw what I posted on social media? Make sure what you post is appropriate, improves your reputation, and is professional. You also want to be consistent across your social media platforms, creating a strong brand throughout.

I hope this post got you thinking about your own personal brand. Good luck crafting it!

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Maximizing Your Happiness and Success at Work

We are so busy with work these days. We get used to having a certain routine everyday, and after time, we are afraid to stray off that path. But to maximize your happiness and your overall success at work and in life, you must get out of your comfort zone, work on time management skills, and stay healthy while doing it. Read below to learn more:

1. Get out of your comfort zone: Try something new everyday!

Human beings are afraid of change (this has been scientifically proven). Getting out of your comfort zone by trying something new may seem scary, but this is only at the beginning. Change and lack of familiarity cause these fears to arise in us, however, by practicing something new as often as you can, you will make it a habit and lose that fear. You will start to see the benefits of getting out of your comfort zone as that fear turns into fulfillment and adventure!

Nothing contributes to our happiness more than shattering the delusions to which we cling.

An example of getting out of your comfort zone to try something new could be coming up to someone you’ve never spoken to, and starting a conversation with them. Most people want to meet other people, but are afraid of feeling rejection. If you come up to them and initiate the conversation, they will probably be excited and have a lot to offer to the discussion. People love talking about themselves — so make sure you ask questions about them! You never know who you can meet and who they may know, how they can help you, etc. By getting out of your comfort zone, you have just expanded your network with one conversation!

2. Don’t waste valuable time in meetings

If you work in corporate America, you know how much time can be wasted because of unproductive meetings.

To combat this, prepare ahead of time. If you’re leading the meeting, make sure that all of the meeting participants are on time and are ready to focus in the meeting. It helps when people don’t bring in their electronic devices and when they close their laptops — this ensures that everybody will be engaged and not distracted. Let them know that they can take notes on notebooks, as this is proven to increase retention, memory, and learning.

Another way to combat wasting valuable time in meetings is by keeping them organized and on a time-sensitive schedule. You can do so by making sure to send out an agenda with action items before the meeting, setting specific topics and goals of the meeting in mind before the meeting begins.

Lastly, if you are presenting or in charge of bringing any material to the meeting, make sure that it is open on your computer or email beforehand (such as presentations, emails, or other documents or files) in order to help make easy and fast transitions between presentations and save valuable time!

3. Stay active and healthy

What do most successful people have in common? They are fit and stay in shape. Many studies have discovered the direct correlation that exists between staying in shape and having a successful career. Working out, as well as nutritious eating habits, improve time management, boost mental performance and mental clarity, and improve employee morale, energy, and stress levels.

To stay active, make sure you can fit working out into your schedule. For instance, you can schedule your workouts in the morning by waking up earlier (if you’re a morning person) and going for a walk or jog in the park or around your neighborhood. Working out in the morning will surely give you a huge energy boost that will make you feel rejuvenated throughout the day. If you’re more of a night owl, you can do your exercise in the evening. The key is to find what works for you and do it consistently.

Hope these tips help you feel happier at work, and bring you great success in all of your endeavors!

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Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

Every new year, you will see your Facebook friends “checking-in” at the gym, posting pictures of the salad they had for lunch on Instagram, and tweeting every single step they took that day. That’s because each new year, we all want to start fresh. We want to learn from the mistakes we made the previous year. Everyone wants, and needs, a fresh start. The problem is how we all go about doing it.

New year’s resolutions are destined to fail, unless you frame them right. When you make a bold claim like “I want to get really fit, and go to the gym everyday” or “I want to find my passion”, you set yourself up for an unrealistic goal. Or when you make a list of 5 resolutions for the year rather than focus on 1, you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to make them all happen.

Why new year’s resolutions fail — in a nutshell:

1. Scattered or vague goals: The less specific your goal is, the more likely you will fail (this has been statistically and scientifically proven). If it is vague, it is easier to make excuses to not achieve it. But if you make it more detailed, you will know exactly what you need to do everyday to make your goal a reality. For instance, if my goal is to “get fit”, this is an entirely impossible task I have set out for myself. There are about 1,000,000 steps I need to take (literally) before I can achieve that. If I make this goal more detailed, such as “walking my dog every morning to get my heart rate up”, I will know the exact actions I need to take everyday to make my goal possible.

To help myself even further, I can break my resolution up into mini-goals, like taking 5,000 steps a day or taking a spin class 3 times a week. Breaking your resolution up into mini-goals as well as adding specificity makes it more actionable, achievable, and honestly less intimidating for yourself. A good new year’s resolution would be to “incorporate more fruit and vegetables into your diet” vs. “to get healthy” or to “bike to work” vs. “to get fit”. These are tangible and specific goals that you can achieve everyday.

2. Too many goals at one time: The more goals you make for yourself, the more your willpower will suffer. How many times have you tried to cut out ALL fatty foods, or tried a juice cleanse, or tried to hit the gym everyday, until you gave up and binged on fatty foods only and gave up on the gym completely? This happens way too frequently, and it’s because we use an all-or-nothing mentality. Either I’m eating healthy AND exercising, or I’m not doing either. Either I’m eating healthy all day or I’m not at all. Either I accomplish going to the gym everyday, eating healthy, and walking more, or I don’t do either.

The problem with the all-or-nothing mentality is that as soon as you make one “mistake”, you are done for good. This is the real issue with setting too many goals — it perpetuates this all-or-nothing mentality. There is also a chain reaction associated with this mentality. When you break one, you are more likely to break all. A good way to avoid falling into this trap is to focus on one resolution, and break it up into mini-goals or steps if you wish, rather than making 5 resolutions. You can always add onto this list later if you please.

3. Why the hell not: We put so much pressure on ourselves every new year to achieve these new year’s resolutions — we post about them on every social media platform imaginable, and we tell all of our friends and family members. Don’t get me wrong, these are great motivators, but they also put every action you take under a microscope, becoming gossip that everybody’s talking about rather than a goal you are pursuing for yourself. Humans are interesting creatures in that humans like to see other humans fail.

As soon as you “fail”, you feel guilt and shame. Compare this guilt and shame to that of an addict. The worse an addict feels about a minor relapse, the more likely it will turn into a major relapse. I like to call this the “why the hell not method”. If you decide to stop smoking cigarettes for the new year, and you relapse and smoke one, this one setback turns into a storm of setbacks. “Should I smoke another cigarette?” … “Why the hell not, I already messed up.”

This ties back to the all-or-nothing mentality, making you feel ashamed and guilty. This is why new year’s resolutions are often not achieved — because we make ourselves strive for perfection. But no one is perfect. It’s OK to not be perfect, and it’s OK to have small setbacks or deviations in your journey. That’s why it’s called a journey – there are many roads — some bumpy, some curvy, some completely unpaved, but in the end, you will reach your destination if you just keep moving forward.

If you’re reading this, please do yourself a favor. Take the list of new year’s resolutions you made for yourself and light it on fire (ok, it doesn’t have to be THAT dramatic). Look at the goals you have written for yourself and see if you can prioritize which resolution is most important to you. Now, make it specific. How do you want to get fit? For how long do you want to study each day? In what ways do you want to be more organized?

Also, look at the why. Why do you want to achieve this goal? If the reason has to do with someone else, like losing weight for your boyfriend or getting a reputable job for your parents, then burn the page (you can actually do it this time). Any resolution that has to do with someone else is NOT a good motivator. At the end of the day, you want this goal to be for yourself — to achieve true satisfaction in your body, in your mind, and in your heart.

You can now let out a big sigh of relief — the pressure of achieving your nearly impossible new year’s resolution is off your shoulders. Instead, let’s take this new year and focus on becoming better versions of ourselves, for ourselves. We can do it!

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Dealing with Disappointment

I came across this post from JillFit Physiques on how to deal with disappointment, and it just made everything seem so clear to me:

Truth: No one reaches adulthood without disappointing someone.

Whether it’s a parent or grandparent, a spouse or partner, or a close friend or family member — people will not always agree with our choices.

And if we think about it, we can see it from their point of view. It’s only human that they’d want us to remain in our safe zone. It’s safer for them because nothing has to change, and they perceive that it’s safer for us too. They want to keep us from making mistakes and ending up in pain. Of course they do, they love us and don’t want us to struggle. 

But that’s also an impossible task. None of us get out of this life without some real struggle (whether we go looking for it or not), and eventually, many of us will get to a point where we need to go out and do something for ourselves, something that speaks to our soul. And though that can be scary for all involved, it’s also just part of the journey.

And the outcome is disappointing others. It’s inevitable. And you might never convince your friends or loved ones to be on your team, but you can always practice kindness and understanding, and then do whatever you were going to do anyway. If you can’t convince them with words, your actions and outcomes will speak volumes.

And the irony of this is usually the second you don’t need anyone else’s approval anymore is usually about the same time they come around.

#MondayMusings

–Reposted from JillFit Physiques

We are not crazy. We are passionate.

It is rare that I come across something on the internet that gives me goosebumps. But this blog post, written by Yann Girard, was magical. Everything that I couldn’t put into words he said with wisdom and grace. I’ve chosen a few things he wrote about, and I want to touch upon them and add my own experiences.

1. Believing that you have a reputation will only hold you back. Our “reputations” are stopping us from achieving our true potential. It’s true, I have to admit, I am constantly worrying about what my family members will think of my career choices, and what my social media networks will think of me. As Yann Girard put it:

Believing that you have a reputation will only hold you back from really experiencing and living a life you deeply care about. It will hold you back from doing the things you’d really like to do but people discourage you.

Who cares what other people think? We should try different paths, find ourselves, explore the great outdoors, travel for a year, pursue our dreams of being a Hollywood actor, and the list goes on. At the end of the day, it’s your happiness and your approval that truly matter.

2. There will never be a good time for change. This is so true. But we only have obstacles in our way if we let them get in our way:

There will never be a good time for change. It’s almost always a bad time to change things in your life. You might not have enough money. People might turn their backs on you and talk shit about you…change will never be easy. But if you wait for change to magically happen you’ll most probably be waiting your life away.

3. Creating projects will help you find what you’re good at. I completely agree with this one. If we have our hand at trying different projects, putting our own spin on them, and even pitching new ideas at the workplace or for our own start-up, we will find ourselves in the process.

If you wait until you have that perfect idea or until you know who you really are or what you really want to do with your life you will probably never start doing anything.

It’s only by starting to create things that you will figure yourself out and find your true purpose in life.

4. The world is guided by fear. Girard points out that every single person is afraid of taking risks. We all fear failure, and that’s normal. But what makes people go from ordinary to extraordinary is overlooking that fear and going for your goals. Take that fear and make use of it; let it be your fuel for success.

5. Be human and admit your flaws. In our society today, we feel the need to hide our true selves, to hide our flaws. But what makes us unique is our flaws. Instead of putting on a mask, we should aim to be more human.

People connect with people and not perfect machines. So put that mask away and be more human instead. Don’t be afraid to show your flaws.

Make sure it’s your own story you’re telling and not someone else’s.

6. Nothing in life is really a waste of time. Every experience, whether good or bad, makes us grow. Every project we completed (or didn’t complete), every journey we embarked on, every failure we experienced, and every rock bottom we have hit; these experiences make us who we are. They tell our story.

Nothing. Is. A. Waste. Of. Time.

Not the shitty job you worked at for many years. Not the bad relationship you’ve been in for many years.

It’s either a blessing or a lesson.

7. The best things in life are the things we never really planned. I love that Girard wrote about this as one of his lessons. I feel the same way in that almost everything that I have accomplished thus far that I am most proud of was something I never planned. So say YES to different opportunities that are presented to you. Don’t want to be a salesperson but you get recruited for that position? Try it out, go on the interview, see if you like it. Tying in to the previous point, every experience is worth it. I gained confidence, strength, and life-long friends from the experiences that I didn’t plan, from joining a sorority (me, a sorority girl? Not even close!), to me accepting internships for HR, PR, marketing, you name it! Take every opportunity. You never know where it will lead you.

8. You have to lose yourself to find your true inner self. At this point of the article, I got real goosebumps. That is probably one of the wisest pieces of advice I have ever received from reading one article. Life is a journey. Let yourself get lost. You will find yourself along the way.

You actually really have to lose yourself to find your true inner self. I still haven’t found it yet but I have the feeling that I’m on the right track.

9. There is no such thing as overnight success. Girard is absolutely right on this one. Everything takes time to build. Be patient, be open, be kind.

Everything in life takes a hell lot of time.

But in the end, what truly inspired me and gave me renewed energy and motivation was his blog bio:

This is for the people who look at the world from a different perspective. The ones who are restless. The ones who strive for change. The ones who see things differently. The ones who don’t accept the status quo. The ones who challenge current thinking patterns. The ones who break down existing barriers. The ones who make the impossible possible. The ones who build new things. The ones most people call crazy, but we call them passionate. This is for the people just like you and me.

Thank you to Yann Girard for a beautifully written article. I could not have said it better myself. Please follow his blog and read more.

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Happiness is a CHOICE

When we stop chasing the world’s definition of happiness, we begin to see that the decision to experience happiness has been right in front of us all along.

CONFIDENCE: It Will Change Your Life!

Each time we face a fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.

This quote inspired my blog post today: gaining strength, courage, and confidence.

Do you look around at confident people and wonder how they were born that way? Newsflash: they were not. Like other skills, practice makes perfect, and there are many steps you can take to become more confident in yourself and your abilities. Whether you want to feel confident for a job interview, a speech you are making in front of your colleagues, or in a fitness class, I have a few tips that may help.

1. Practice Makes Perfect

For those of you who fear giving a presentation or meeting new people, practice is exactly what you need. When you go up to give that presentation or meet that person, nerves tend to get in the way, causing loss of words, jumbled sentences, unnecessary pauses, and a shaky voice. All of these aspects tend to take away from the true knowledge and talent that YOU have to offer. By practicing and repeating your elevator pitch or speech, you will engrain the necessary information in your head so when your mind blanks, that information will still be delivered due to instinct: your body will remember it. Crazy enough, the more you present in front of the mirror, ask yourself practice questions, and study your body language, the more confident and courageous you will feel with what you can offer.

2. Use the Nerves

Nerves exist for a reason. In fact, you just have to know what to do with them to be successful. When you feel nervous, take that feeling and steer it into a helpful direction. Rather than psyching yourself out or doubting yourself, know that feeling nervous is okay, and use it to empower yourself. You can even tell the new person you’re meeting that you are feeling a bit nervous, or your audience members that you get a bit shaky before presentations, and they will sympathize with you. It is only natural to feel that way. Use it to your benefit!

3. Body Language Speaks Wonders

Your body truly portrays your feelings. If you feel nervous, your body will shake, your heart will beat quickly, and you will slouch from a lack of confidence. You can combat all of this by tricking your body, letting your mind do the work. By standing tall with your chin pointed high, people around you will read your body language as though you are a confident, strong, and courageous person – and they will treat you like one. You can trick the people around you and yourself this way, and soon, you will actually feel more comfortable and confident in your abilities.

4. Your Audience Doesn’t Know Anything

Although picturing your audience in their underwear has been a joke for years when it comes to public speaking, picturing your audience as unknowledgeable could be more beneficial. Your audience does not know any of the information that you will be telling them. They are here to learn from YOU and you only. You have their undivided attention, and you are their teacher for the day. They can’t outsmart you or judge you because YOU have all of the information, and it is your job to deliver it. Know that you are in charge of the information, so feel confident with your ability to deliver it.

5. Have FUN!

Why do we feel a lack of confidence? Most of the time, we are afraid of being judged by people. Guess what? We are our toughest critics. Most people don’t notice how much you are psyching yourself out or how hard you are on yourself. They also tend not to notice little nervous quirks that we notice ourselves doing. Last but not least, we care so much about what strangers think of us…but guess what? You will probably never see those people again. So quit caring so much about what they think and live your life!

Don’t let a lack of confidence tear you down. You have all the tools in your toolbox to be a confident, courageous, strong, and successful professional and person. Take these tips, and put them to good use!

Good luck, and go practice!

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Embarking on a New Life Journey

Hey everyone! It has been a long time since my last update. A lot has been going on in my life since then, so I thought I would update all of you wonderful followers! I graduated from UC San Diego with my Communication Degree and my Business minor, so thank you to everyone who has been supporting me and reading this blog throughout the process. Since graduation, I have done some traveling locally and internationally. I went to Napa, which was absolutely lovely, and I got to go hot air balloon riding. I also went on my first cruise to Alaska and Vancouver. It was so nice to put away all of my technology and just enjoy nature for once. Alaska was serene, peaceful, and beautiful. Vancouver was also a very cool place to explore. They have a thriving business center and a growing population of millennials, so it was great to see some young people around! Hopefully, I will get to travel again soon. My next adventure will probably be in Japan, since one of my best friends is teaching there. Besides traveling, I have mainly been working at a startup company in the Bay Area called Owl Vision, and I have been learning a lot on a professional and personal level.

I have also been going to the Bay Club for my fitness routine, which is what I wanted to talk about with ya’all today!

Although this blog has been focused mainly on health in the corporate world, I thought I would expand to health for adults in general, since this is such a crucial part of life. Don’t worry, I won’t stop writing about health in the workplace, but rather I wanted to approach health in a more holistic sense. Since recently moving back to the Bay Area from San Diego, I have joined the Bay Club Gym, which offers an array of awesome classes to its members. I have discovered a few that I have particularly enjoyed that I wanted to share with ya’all.

The first one is Body Pump. This class will kick your behind into shape. No matter how many times I go to this class, it always ends up beating me up! It focuses on building muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility by working 8 core muscle groups; from back to chest, shoulders to pecs, thighs to glutes, you name it, it will be sore by the end of the workout. Usually these classes are an hour long, so right when you feel like giving up, they will be over (thankfully). Your muscles will feel sore for a week afterward, but it is WORTH IT! Give it a try. You can check out what it’s all about on their official website.

The next class is called Body Combat. This class was created by the same makers of Body Pump, but it is more focused on intense cardiovascular exercises rather than solely muscular exercises. This class teaches you how to punch effectively, defend yourself, and is essentially like kickboxing. It is a fun mix of very energetic and intense cardio and some strength exercises along the way. Your arms will feel like falling off, but it is definitely worth a try. After a few weeks, you will not only feel more fit, but you will feel like you can defend yourself (if you ever need to…hopefully not). Check it out here!

The last class I would recommend for everyone to try is cycling. Now, I know all of you know what cycling is, but these group exercises held by a trained cyclist are so empowering! You can start on beginner level and add a bit of resistance as you go along, but I’m telling you, this is the class that will take your fitness to the next level. Honestly, I am NOT a biker. I have fallen off my bike on numerous occasions and don’t consider myself an advanced biker whatsoever. But these bikes are stationary (thank god), and are for all levels! Not only do you feel so good about yourself during the class, but you walk out of it feeling like a soldier. Soon, I may start to work on my cycling certification to become a spin instructor, but I need to master the art first!

I know people (me included) feel anxiety when they try new things, especially fitness classes, but trust me when I say that NO ONE has 100% mastered these classes. They are constantly evolving with new moves, new techniques, and new instructors, so you are not behind. Just put on your workout gear, and get ready to sweat! You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Get Moving,

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