In the last post, I discussed why goal setting is fundamental to extracting your personal brand. I also highlighted tips and techniques for writing and reaching your goals. In this post, I’ll elaborate on the latter and provide additional tips.

6. Identify the knowledge, skills and competencies you need to move forward.

Which skills do you need to be at the top of your game? What one skill, if you developed it, would have the greatest impact on your life or career? What one skill, if you developed it and did it consistently, would help you achieve your most important goal? Identify it and begin to work on it every single day.

7. Recruit and enlist your support team.

To achieve lofty goals, you will need the help and support of many people. Who is your support team or board of advisors? Identify the list of family members, work colleagues and mentors you need in your life. You list could also include your coach or an industry consultant.

8. Celebrate Successes, which boost your confidence.

When you have achieved a goal, take time to celebrate reaching the milestone. Treat yourself to something “meaningful” to mark the accomplishment. You do not have to spend a large sum of money; it could be a simple token such as a DVD, a drink with a friend, or something more extravagant such as a massage.

9. Organize your 12-month goals into smaller more manageable steps.

Planning is very important to reaching your goals. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. So how will you spend your time? Plan out the next 12 months, month by month. For each month, list two or three KEY activities that you must accomplish that would have the most profound impact on the bigger picture.

10. Take action every day

Many baby steps taken consistently add up to big goals.  Just do one thing, one little thing each day that will keep the momentum going and keep you moving forward.

“Success is goals and all else is commentary”

~Brian Tracy

Goal setting is a key component and one of the first steps in helping a client Extract their Personal Brand. Without goals and a defined target audience, it is very impossible to know how to express and where to point your Personal Brand.

Goal setting helps:

• You get clarity on what you want in your career.
• Activate mental powers that will enable you to accomplish your goals.
• Motivate you and highlights what distractions might be in the way of your success
• Lead to success, increased income, and great career/life happiness.

So now that you are convinced that you need to set your career goals as part of the Personal Branding work, how do you actually go about doing this? In the next two blog posts, I’ll outline 10 steps to goal setting and goal attainment.

1. Develop a big picture of what you want to accomplish in your career/life.

Take a piece of paper or use Microsoft Word and write down everything you want to accomplish in the next ten years of your life. Be sure to include goals for all major areas of your life, including career, community service, family, health, financial and hobbies.  As you identify your goals, be sure they are goals you want to achieve, and not ones desired by others in your life, such as your parents, your significant other, or employer.

2. Prioritize the goals by timeframe.

Go back to the list you just created and break the long list of goals into three smaller timeframes. For example, you could categorize them by short-term (next 12 months), medium-term (next 2 to 5 years) and then longer term (6 to 10 years).

NOTE: For the remainder of this blog post, I am going to focus mainly on your short-term goals, so tuck away your other goals for a later time.

3. Rewrite your short-term goals in SMART goal format.

SMART goals are:

Specific-this means answering the“who, what, when, where, and why”questions. The “why” question is very important. You need to understand why you want this goal and how the goal aligns with your values.

Measurable-this establishes how you are going to measure progress toward the attainment of the goals you have set.

Attainable-make sure the goal is within reach, but also stretches you to strive and to think big.

Relevant or Realistic-A realistic goal is an objective which you are both motivated to achieve and realistically able to do so.

Timely or Time Bound- a goal with a timeframe sets your subconscious mind into motion to begin working on it. With no timeframe, there is no sense of urgency to reach the goal.

4. Make Your Goals Visible and Review Them Daily.

This action of putting your goals in a visible place sets the intention to the greater universe and becomes a daily reminder of what it is you are trying to accomplish.

Review your goals regularly and revise them if you reach them too easily, or if they are too difficult. Also, if you notice a deficit in your skills despite achieving a goal, then think about what you would like to do to fix this.

5. Identify the obstacles that are getting in your way.

Think about what is going to get in the way of your achieving your goals. What within yourself is holding you back? What changes can you make to move forward?

In the recent world of work, characterized by mergers and acquisitions, layoffs, virtual work, and constant change, competition for jobs and advancement opportunities is intense. Personal Branding is the new buzzword in career management and is a unique opportunity for job seekers, career changers, and small business owners to figure out what separates them from their peers and to rise above the noise in this crowded business and employment environment.

Personal Branding is for EVERYONE, not just consumer packaged goods firms with large marketing and branding budgets. It is about identifying and then communicating what makes you unique, relevant, and differentiated for your target audience, so that you can reach your career or business goals. If you understand your strengths, skills, passions, values, goals, and how others perceive you, you can then use this information to separate yourself from your competitors and really stand out.

Personal Branding is very powerful because it sends a clear, consistent, and authentic message about who you are and what you have to offer. A strong, authentic Personal Brand helps you become known for what you’re good at, sets you apart from everyone else, and can position you as a niche expert.

So you are probably wondering, how do you discover your Personal Brand?

The first step in the process is (1) to do your own introspective analysis or homework (understanding your goals, values, passions, strengths, etc.) and then (2) to understand how others perceive you. Once you have analyzed all of this information and have distilled down your unique brand attributes and leadership competencies, then you can determine how to communicate your competitive differentiation to the people who need to know about you (your target audience). In the communication phase, you establish a media plan that is based upon communication vehicles you enjoy using and those that reach your target audience. This phase could also include incorporating your Personal Brand into your resume, a branded biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter, etc.

So why should I care about Personal Branding?

There are numerous benefits to a strong Personal Brand, some of which are listed below:

• Personal Branding enhances your self-awareness.
• Personal Branding helps you clarify and reach your career or business goals.
• Personal Branding helps you create visibility and presence, in front of those people who will be making decisions about you.
• Personal Branding is about differentiation.
• Personal Branding offers more control and power over your career.
• Personal Branding creates wealth as strong brands are typically paid more.
• Personal Branding offers resilience in difficult economic times.