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Definitions

Personal branding is:
Personal branding is the art of influencing how others perceive you.

Authenticity
The character trait of being genuine and honest with oneself as well as others. To be authentic means to remain true to your belief system and your guiding principles. Your habits and behavior should reflect who you are to the core and should be consistent whether your alone or with others. Remaining authentic at all times creates consistent behavior which is key to successful personal and business relationships.

Passion:
is what gets you excited and energized. It happens when you're involved in doing things that you truly enjoy, an extension of who you are in an active sense. You know that you are passionate when it occupies your mind and wants to pull your activity in that direction. It is important to know your passion because once defined, you will have revealed a key component of your vision. It may take awhile to define your passion if you've never done it before, but do it anyway; it will open the door of opportunity and give you a glimpse of what could be.

Philosophy:
your philosophy is derived from your belief system, which comes from your guiding principles. Those things that form who you are and what you stand for. They are in essence the foundation of your personal brand. Ultimately, your philosophy is your signature and will enable you to influence how others perceive you. When formulizing your philosophy, take your time and come back periodically to refine your thoughts. Also, consider the following elements as potentially significant components in determining who you are.

  • Faith
  • Relationships
  • Guiding principles (principles that you believe to be true, consistent and influence how you think)
  • Your view of success
  • Values
  • Your temperament (personality type)

Vision:
your vision answers the question. If nothing could stop me, who would I become? Your vision is the "big picture" the source of your dreams. It's comprised of your passion(s) and philosophy. To succeed, you must have vision, and without vision, people fail. If you were to tell me that you believe in the principle of sowing and reaping, where one gets back what one gives away, I would tell you that this principle is part of your personal philosophy. Further, if you added that you get really energized at the thought of working with kids, and also how passionate you are about sports, it would seem logical to assume that your passions are related to kids and sports. If nothing could stop you, who would you become? Perhaps your vision, the big picture, might be to coach kids in sports where you can have a valuable mentoring role in their lives. In effect, you could give away love, attention, insight and time to them and know that you will get the same back from someone else. In fact, now that you can define your vision, you can share it with others on GetToKnow.

Guiding principles:
are those main beliefs, values, ideology that guide your thinking and govern your behavior.

Mission statement:
is a concise statement defining your fundamental purpose, why you exist, what you're after or your reason for being. It is closely linked to your vision and guiding principles.

Success:
is the ongoing process of setting and achieving goals fueled by your dreams and visions.

The 6 revolving steps to success:

  1. Define your dreams and visions
  2. Set attainable goals
  3. Establish successful habits
  4. Keep a running list of contacts and ideas
  5. Check your progress
  6. Repeat 1 through 5
Goals:
A milestone with a date, which defines the path of events or tasks along the way to achieving the dream. Goals should be - specific, attainable, written down and dated. Note that it is wise to set a new goal before achieving the current one so that you stay on track towards the dream.

Dream:
That's the most important thing. It's the reason you set goals in the first place. Allow your dream to fuel your activity and empower you to overcome challenges along the path to success.

Vision:
The big picture.