It’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good you want to be!

Dreams and Success

Do you have dreams? 

I think most people have dreams.  We dream about our future, our success and our career, and we work towards our dreams to make our dreams come true. 

But, do we dream about ourselves?

Dreams about Ourselves 

We seldom dream about ourselves. 

Even we have some big figures and big names in our minds, like Richard Brandson, Steve Job, Bill Gates, etc., we dream about their success, but seldom dream about their personal qualities.

This is too true that every one of us could dream, but only a few of us could ever try the taste of success.  What is the magic behind all the big figures and big names? 

When talking about dreams and success, it is always the personal qualities, the characters, the inner strengths, which make the great differences, and eventually bring the success. 

So, why don’t we dream about our personal qualities and work towards it?  Why don’t we think one step forward?  Maybe it’s the trick of our everyday thinking and logic.

For our common logic  of thinking, we tend to think and try to figure out who we are, how good or how bad we are, our strengths and weaknesses, etc.  But our logic seldom draws us to think “how good we want to be? “. 

Of course knowing ourselves better and figuring our strengths and weaknesses are important for our self improvements.  It is even more important for us to think and work out “how good we want to be”, which would give us drive for improvements.

We could never be successful if we have never dreamt of our success.  We could never be a successful and admirable person if we have never dreamt about ourselves, dreamt about how good we want to be. 

Let’s start working on our dreams for ourselves today, let’s start thinking “how good we want to be”.  Very soon, I am sure that you would tell the differences.

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• Let go

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Blogging as Branding

I have been thinking of branding myself for a long time, not until I’ve found out this blogosphere, or what I call “serious blogging”, I do not have a single clue on it.

What is “Personal Branding”?

Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marketed as brands.  It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.  The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters.

The makeup of a personal brand has four main elements: personality, appearance, competencies, and differentiation. An individuals total perceived value takes into account these elements and is considered to be his or her core message or elevator pitch to an audience.

It is common to divide branding into tangible and intangible. Tangible branding involves associating an individual’s name with some specific advantage that they are presumed to offer, while intangible branding involves creating a more general positive feeling about them.” - Wikipedia on Personal Branding

What we talk, how we behave, how we dress, how we interact with our friends and colleagues and customers, etc., all constitute to our branding.  We are building up our own brand everyday no matter you are aware of it or not, and no matter you like such activity or not. 

Why ”Personal Branding”?

We are not “selling” ourselves, we are not doing any business, why we care about branding?  The answer rests with whether you have something in mind you would like to promote?  Whether there is something you are good at and you would like to show to the world? 

By doing personal branding, we could establish our fame and reputation in the aspects we are good at and for the things we are interested in.   With our own brand, we could attract and meet more friends who have similar interests and thoughts as we do and build up our network in a particular aspect.  We would be able to expand our opputunities for achievement.

Blogging as Branding

We want to brand ourselves, we know that there are some aspects in us worth presenting to the world, we want to build up our fame and reputations, what are we going to do?  Opening a shop and put ourselves inside the show window?  Printing ourselves  some leaflets and distribute them on the street?  Hiring a commercial time on the TV to speak to the audience?

In the past, writing a book and knock on the publishers’ door would be an good idea.  But this process requires lots of strength and patience.   We could also write some articles and try to submit to the newpapers’ editor.  If we are lucky enough, we could meet some editors who like our writing and let us write for the newspaper as freelance writers. 

With the growing popularity of blogosphere and that more and more serious and professional bloggers have emerged and there are more and more blog readers, it is now possible for us to brand ourselves, to set up a shop for us, to place ourselves in our own show window, to display and present any articles, thoughts, work of ourselves totally out of no cost (or at the minimum cost of getting a host). 

This little on-line shop for ourselves could be reached by all international readers 24 hours throughout the day.  We could manage the shop and keep contacts with our readers everywhere everytime whenever we have the internet connections.  What can be more easy than setting up a shop of ourselves by creating a blog?  What can be more achievable than branding ourselves by becoming a serious blogger?

To brand your thoughts, to brand your characters, to brand your interests, to brand your lifestyle, etc., there is always something good in you that worth branding.  Branding ourselvse, by way of blogging, is a way to build up our fame and reputation.

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related post: From Casual to Serious Blogging - what makes the differences and what does it mean?

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From Casual to Serious Blogging - what makes the differences and what does it mean?

I have been writing my personal blogs for years, if it was not my good friend shine (this talent and pretty lady has become a serious blogger in 2 months time, starting from ground zero) who had introduced this world of blogging to me, I would have no idea of what serious and professional blogging could be.
  

“You rent a server to write diaries?”
“Why are you doing blogging?”
“What do you want to achieve?”
“What do you want to earn?”

These are the most common questions I have come across when my friends know about my new started blogging life.

In fact, blogging is very popular nowadays, and many people are owning and writing their blogs, some even own more than one blog at the same time.  There are tones of service providers out there for us to create our blogs to share our thoughts.  However, most of the bloggers, including me before, are casual bloggers only.  What makes the differences between casual blogging and serious and even professional blogging?  What could be achieved through blogging?  Why are some people doing so seriously?  These would be some common questions that casual bloggers would pretty much like to know.

Casual vs Serious Bloggers

What are the differences between casual bloggers and serious bloggers? 

For serious bloggers, they may not yet or they may not target to become professional bloggers, who could earn substantial incomes based on blogging.  If it is not for / not yet for money / income, what is the difference between a casual blogger and a serious one?

The answer lies on the attitudes of the bloggers.  For casual bloggers, most of us, are writing our dairies, our own stories, our own feelings, what ever we want to write, etc.  We don’t care whether we have reader or not.  The posts so written are circulated and read by our own friends.  What most, in fact, we are our own readers.  So, to a certain extend, casual bloggers write for themselves, and not the readers.  

The story is quite different for a serious blogger.  For serious blogger, they write for their readers.  Their readers may or may not know themselves, or maybe even international and have different cultural backgrounds.  It is what they write that have attracted and retained the readers.  Therefore, what they write should not be related to themselves only, but to the readers at large.  Posts by serious bloggers would be meaningful to their readers and their readers would find it worthwhile to read the posts. 

For casual bloggers who write for themselves and not their readers, they may not write their posts regularly.  Sometimes, they may write several articles a day, sometimes, they may not have any post for a whole month.  They never think of their readers’ expectations nor habits.  While for serious bloggers, they would write regularly on their own pace.  Through regular posts, the serious bloggers are able to manage their readers’ expectations and habits.  This is the basic but the most important effective way to build up readership, for the readers know what to expect and would not get frustrated.

It is also important for any serious blogger to identify their niche, areas in which they are interested and good at, and it would be a pleasure for them to share such experiences and knowledge with their readers. 

Serious bloggers tend to plan for their posts, normally over a week.   For sure that we would write according to our instincts or some new experiences, serious bloggers still have a plan to follow somehow.  Well planned posts would garantee consistent quality, that is the magic.

Why become a serious blogger?

Every thing has a reason, blogging should have no exception.   

By creating a website / blog, we in fact have created a platform, “an online shop”, which operates 24 hours around the clock and could be accessible from every corner of the world and we don’t need shop assistant. 

On this platform, we could sell and diplay things which we want to.  And what is most important, is to sell and advertise “ourselves”.  We could form our community and  networking through this platform.  We could find someone who are with similar wave lengths as ourselves from everywhere on earth.  This is the most important thing we could “earn” or “gain” through blogging.

Some important notes for new bloggers

To become serious bloggers, we would need to write regularly, even daily.  This may be the most difficult part for a casual blogger to become a serious blogger.  However, once you start writing and try to work on this, it may become your habits to write regularly.

Don’t hesitate that you may not have topic to share with your readers.  Topics come from our everyday lives and we would build up our own habits to write when we do it day by day.  You would find it more easily to write your posts after practising it for some time.

Quality posts are important to retain your readers.  Never scrafice your writing quality in order to get your website updated everyday.  Readers are able to tell whether you have hearts in your posts.   

Identifying suitable readers is also important for serious bloggers.  Joining forums and blog communities would be necessary activities for serious bloggers to build up the readership. 

Want to create your platform? Want to build up your readership and community?  Start as a serious blogger today and you would find out more fun and rewards.

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A Shining Star

this post is dedicated to a dear friend of mine, and tomorrow, she would start her new life.

she is a pretty, talented,  energetic, smart and cheerful lady, who has been working brightly and most admirably.  she is loving, kind, graceful and trustworthy and all friends love her very much.  it’s my honour for knowing her and being friend and colleague with her for quite some years.  to me, she is really an angel to us.

in pursuit of her career, she is leaving our company today.  on one hand, i really miss her and dont want this to be true.  her leaving is a loss to us all, for lossing such a brilliant and loyal teammate.  on the other hand, as her friend, i do support her move.  i believe that with her all rounded qualities, she would do very well in her new career. 

my dearest friend, please excuse me for not having any precious gift for you.  to mark your meaningful day, i have drawn my wisdom card for you.  this is what your card says:

“you have drawn this card today because it is time for you to break free from the restrictions caused by such believes.

your life is on the verge of a beautiful transformation, yet in order for this transformation to occur you must first examine your believes. 

you are worthy of happiness.  you deserve to be and have all your heart desires.  honour, respect and love yourself.”

dear friend, trust yourself and trust your talents.  the new world is ahead of you.  you are a shining star and you would make it a success.   don’t forget you have got your Guadian angels watching over you, you would never be alone. 

with love.

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