Nobody Is Perfect. Or?

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Nobody is perfect. Or? Read an article about how to answer ”What’s your greatest weakness?” yesterday. Asking this question implies that we have weaknesses and I wonder – do we really? Yes, we have things we don’t like doing and as a consequence are not good at. But is it a weakness? I’d rather say it’s a strength knowing what you don’t like so you can team up with people loving exactly these things. Yes, we have qualities that don’t match certain conditions. But then those conditions aren’t for us.

 

So might be we’re all just perfect. Perfect for our unique professional adventure.

 

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The Key To Success.

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Attended a master class with brilliant composer, producer and Polar Music Prize winner Max Martin yesterday. Lots of ideas on how to write a hit of course, but my biggest take-away was this: He just loves his job. I think this is key to his success and how he’s been able to constantly reinvent himself to keep up with the ever-changing world of pop music. Yes, you have to work hard and spend lots of hours mastering your field of work to be super-successful. But when you love what you do it’s not a sacrifice but a privilege. If you also embrace the concept of being constant beta version, there’s nothing but an exciting adventure between you and your ideal professional life.

 

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Forget Work-Life Balance.

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Work-life balance. Important. Or maybe not? I’d say the best you can do is to forget about work-life balance and start thinking work-life integration. I think a sustainable professional life builds upon doing inspiring work with inspiring people, in a way that supports your desired quality of life. Then it doesn’t matter when – or where – you answer your emails or Skype with colleagues. When you love what you do, work-life integration just makes so much more sense than struggling with balance…

 

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Your Work, Your Rules.

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I think the most important business advice I’ve ever got is this: My business, my rules. Sounds obvious, I know. But it’s so d*mn easy to start playing by rules made up by someone else. “You should do this” and “you should do that”. “This we’ve tried before and it didn’t work”, “that you can’t do because…well, we don’t know why but you cannot do like that”. And so on and so forth.

 

Sounds familiar? Of course this isn’t true just when running a business. I’d say this is also the most important thing to access professional freedom and create your ideal professional life. Your work, your rules. It’s your game to play, make sure you play it on your terms.

 

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A Huge Step? Or Not.

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Sometimes I get the question how I ended up doing what I do. Might seem like a huge step from building brands to creating your ideal professional life. But there are actually lots of similarities: In both cases it’s about identifying what you stand for, your non-negotiable values and what inspires you. It’s about discovering your unique combination of talents. It’s about identifying your ideal clients or employers. It’s about figuring out how you want to work and find business models supporting that.

 

So might not be a big surprise I do what I do after all 🙂 Maybe the same is true for you?

 

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Have Faith In The Process.

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Last two days I’ve been teaching workshop facilitation. One thing that always struck me is that no matter how messy things are in the middle of a process, it always turns into a great solution in the end.

 

During the years I’ve learned to have faith in the process. Perfectly true also when creating your ideal professional life: Take action even though you can’t see the exact outcome. Continue also when everything seems like a mess. Because when you do, one thing will lead to another. And all of a sudden you’ve reached much further than you could imagine. Have faith in the process.

 

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Reinvent, Become, Allow.

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How do you make sure your professional life keeps inspiring you? Read an interview with Marc Jacobs the other day and think he pretty much sums it up when he says: “Reinvent yourself, become who you want to be and allow your dreams to come true.” (my translation)

 

Reinvent yourself, become who you want to be and allow your dreams to come true.

 

Key words here: Reinvent, Become, Allow. Creating your ideal professional life is an ongoing adventure and you decide where it will take you from here.

 

Agree?

 

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Own Your Uniqueness.

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It’s said magic happens outside your comfort zone. I say magic happens when you look beyond your own limitations. I think we far too often let our own, and others’, limiting beliefs stop us from doing what we want in our professional lives.

 

But I also know that it is possible to look beyond those limitations. By exploring your unique combination of talents, your non-negotiable values and how your ideal professional life will look you learn to own your uniqueness. And as Goethe said “Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.”

 

“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.”

 

Start believing in your ability. Start owning your uniqueness. Why let your own or anyone else’s limitations stop you from creating magic?

 

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If You Have Ideas Why It’s Impossible, You Also Have Ideas How To Make It Possible.

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Sometimes when I speak to people about creating their ideal professional lives they look at me and say ”Well, that’s possible for you. But for me…” and then a whole bunch of reasons why it’s impossible for them. Some of these reasons are really creative and I mean, if you can come up with that creative ideas why it’s impossible I’m totally sure you can also come up with ideas how to make it possible. I’m convinced you can create the professional life you want. Yes, you have to make an effort. Yes, you have to challenge your comfort zone and look beyond your limitations. But you’ve got exactly what it takes. It’s time to make all the hours we spend at work count!

 

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Make Your Work Hard To Copy.

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We all know that everything that can be digitalized will be digitalized. And what’s digital can easily be copied. Therefore, to succeed in today’s and tomorrow’s professional life you need to grow your uniqueness. It’s not about the facts you know, anyone with some Googling skills can find out anything nowadays. It’s about the qualities and strengths that makes you unique. What’s your unique combination of talents? How will you use them to create you ideal professional life? The more YOU you become, the harder it will be for anyone to copy your work. 

 

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