As we reach the end of the week on KISS, and Goals, what is that renews your journey into another New Year? And what Simple foundation are you building on…
Simple – have you figured what renews your own New Year’s KISS?
“Ok. Now you know all of the people I know that can help us achieve what we need to do. And it is now up to you: to Keep them as your contacts, to grow them, renew them, and to understand how to leverage them appropriately.” It was a Simple statement that happened within the first 3 months of my professional career. Add Smiley and we have the KISS Goal that is now my brand… which renews me consistently…
As I noted yesterday, the first phases of forming Teams are Why, Who, and What. At the end of my career, these were the three “specialties” that I had built a brand around. That initial charge from my Mentor about contacts had guided me for nearly 40 years. So what was it? Goals versus Values versus Beliefs versus Operating Principles? It is gray… like do I stay in touch with people as a Goal so that I can leverage them as needed… or is it a basic Belief? Since I know it is gray, that triggers an Operating Principle now that I need to write about so I can sort it out and explain it … at least to me. Which becomes a Goal…
Simply, Unmasked, what does your brand stand for?
With a band so focused on hedonism, it is always complex to find a song for the Sunday post about renewal. Writing and talking about my Faith and Beliefs has been a Goal since starting this journey of self-employment. I worked in a few businesses that have a very active Faith foundation, one that has a time of prayer for over 1000 employees worldwide. It challenged me to think about what I am willing to stand up for, and do, and say about what matters most… now that I don’t have the convenient legal directive to say anything…
KISS continues to be a brand that has staying power. Having sold more than 75 million records worldwide, KISS is one of the best-selling bands of all time. At press time, KISS has released 20 studio albums, 9 live albums, 14 compilation albums, 60 singles, 8 box set albums, and other singles and plenty of merchandise throughout their career. As of 2021, KISS’ net worth is $300 million. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 – way earlier than other “legitimate” bands like the Doobie Brothers (just last year), and Jethro Tull, The Guess Who, and even Dave Matthews Band. By measures of the world, they have all achieved much, particularly from where they started. Today’s photo shows their faces unmasked…
What stays constant as you search for Simple?
🖋 A big impetus for starting my journey about music came from the book This is Your Brain on Music. Written by a musician who then became a neuroscientist, it is a great explanation of how and why Music has such power in our existence. He is not a Believer, and thinks that we have “evolved” this way. It was not a barrier to my embracing the findings once I made a Simple shift to the phrase “created” for “evolved”. My Goal is not to make that your stance, but I also don’t shy away from stating that stance has provided me with a foundation. It aligns a lot of questions with answers that are Simple… for me, and others including scientists like Einstein. As another good friend said, “This answer is way Simpler than the rest of the choices if you don’t choose this…”
The Road Less Taken is a poem helpful to many in rethinking their own Goals for Life and Success. My experience is that more and more leaders (and followers) at all levels are actively engaging in that deeper conversation about their own Goals – things that Mentors, Parents, others said and they embraced as their own without thinking about them. The old… “Just give me a clear target and I will get there… and then, another one, and then… and now… where am I?” As you are forming your Goals for this New Year, I would make a Simple suggestion that thinking about the meaning of life, and what relationships help you get there is worth considering. As a radio spot in the 80s in DC would say, “Not a Sermon, just a thought”.
Where has your brand been shaken… and affirmed… for what’s ahead?
Many secular blogs and podcasts consistently come back to one of the most important things about Success in business and life is to focus on relationships. That has now become such a basic Belief and Value that my first thought is always “Who” when I am faced with any opportunity or challenge. Who do I know can help/be helped by this… and my mental Rolodex (now aided by LinkedIn and the Internet) starts its built-in Google Search. What relationships come to mind to renew you? Through the last 2 years, I have honed in on new Goals – ones that are not driven by the measures the world uses for Success. as we play out the week with… I Was Made for Loving You.
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