(…and I bet that "SEO" is not what you think it is)
Note: This resource is part of our Moving the Bar in Your Career and Your Life, a unique approach to professional development series: My 3 Ps: Passion, Purpose, Potential. Click here to see the entire series.
Take a quick second and write down your list of roles… Does yours look something like this: Business Owner, Coach, Husband/Wife, Father/Mother, Son/Daughter, Brother/Sister, Friend, and Community Member? You probably thought to include your actual job(s) first, then maybe the fact that you have multiple roles within your family, and then maybe remembered that you are part of a neighborhood or an organization. But what you probably didn’t think to include on your list of roles is YOU. Do any of the roles you listed address YOU, and only you?
The book What’s Your Genius? by Jay Niblick set off light bulbs for us. The author introduces the concept of a new role, writing, "That new title is what I call SEO, or Self Executive Officer, which simply means that you will be your own boss of your life from now on." What does that mean? How do we do that? Of course I am my own boss! What toddler or teenager hasn’t said, "I am the boss and you cannot tell me what to do!" But we all know that it does not always have the best result. Keep reading…
The author goes on to say, "Becoming your own SEO means taking charge of yourself for your own success. It means that while you may follow others (your boss, your crowd, etc.), you are ultimately the one responsible for your own success – no one else." Okay, we understand WHAT is it and agree that it must be one of our roles in life. The harder part is always the HOW – How do we take this from a great thing we just read to something that we can do to help us move forward on the journey?
As an important step in becoming an SEO, consider completing the exercises in the What’s Your Genius Workbook:
1. The first step is to create a job description to help you clarify this new role. Think about the duties and responsibilities that you now have as the SEO. As you take the ownership of your success, have you clearly defined what success is for you?
2. The second step is creating WHY SMART goals. Goals must be Written, Harmonious, Yours, Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely. To get you on the road to taking charge of your own success, you must have the plan, i.e. the goals. This is also the place you need to identify the obstacles that have kept or will keep you from achieving these goals. Having a desire is not enough. You need a clear path to move you along the road to becoming your own boss of success and happiness.
3. This next step is the hardest and often the one we try to skip. The action plan is a list of the individual steps that must be completed one by one to reach each goal. Each of these steps is critical to your overall goal. You must ask yourself the question, "If I do each of these steps will I reach my goal? If not, what did I miss?" As you complete each step, you need to acknowledge your success, reward yourself, and move forward towards completion.
We challenge you to ask yourself a few questions:
- Why would I want to be my own SEO?
- How would taking control of my own success benefit me?
- How will becoming my own SEO make my future brighter?
- What would be the benefit to my family, friends, and loved ones?
Are you ready to be promoted to SEO?
Take another second and write your list of roles… Was SEO first? Now that we understand the importance of taking charge of ourselves and taking responsibility for our own success, how do we become a Self Executive Officer?
We recommend that you read What’s Your Genius and sign up for the free corresponding workbook. As you work through the book, you will simultaneously move through the workbook completing exercises and activities which will help you apply the lessons from the book and integrate them into your own life. Don’t wait – promote yourself to SEO today!
This article was written by Ronnie Zindorf, Senior Associate. Ronnie is an intuitive facilitator and coach with a strong focus on helping her clients find ways to reach their goals both professionally and personally.