That is my reason for writing today. I am asking that question of you all because I’ve been asking it of myself. I have been thinking about it for quite sometime as I have had exchanges concerning the answer a couple of times throughout my series, at least a couple of distinct exchanges that have set my thoughts in motion.
One of them involved visualizing who Geoff Eaton is, and more importantly who I want him to be. We kind of took a marketing approach to it and used the term brand. What did I want the Geoff Eaton Brand to represent? A very interesting process if you go through it. Shortly after this exchange I began to think, off and on with no particular pattern, about what I wanted my brand to represent. Who I wanted to be, and how I wanted people to perceive me. This was a little difficult at first as I found it awkward approaching myself as a marketing project, but once I got over that feeling I have had complete comfort with the process. I approached it no different than I would a business/marketing problem, what is my situation, what are my objectives, what are the influencing factors or parameters of action, how do I want to meet my objectives, implement and always evaluate consistently and forever. (that’s it in fairly simple terms off the top of my head) I would encourage everyone to give this idea some thought as it is a great learning experience. There is something about putting thoughts on paper, at least it works for me. I have come up with a solid description of what Brand Geoff Eaton will represent and I will do my best to implement it in every situation I’m involved with, no matter the significance.
The other conversation I had along these lines involved two questions, how do I picture myself and how do I think other people picture me? I think my major goal is to have the answer to these two questions be the same, and that is what I consistently attempt. Of course I place much more emphasis on my picture of me than I do on other people’s picture of me, but I do think that the general view of a person is usually fairly accurate. However, focusing too much on other people’s perspective leads to many problems, that’s what I feel and have always tried to avoid relying on the general perception’s others. Instead I focused on my own beliefs and those of people who’s thoughts and opinions mattered to me.
Lets continue with the two questions. The first time I was asked these questions I had a little trouble answering them, as it wasn’t something that I consciously thought of, very similar to the Branding question.
However, like the Branding question, I did progress through an answer fairly quickly and once again the process of producing an answer has been extremely valuable. I always said that a business had very little chance of success if they didn’t know where they were going, i.e. they didn’t have a plan. Well I would now say the same about a business that didn’t know who it was. Again, in answering these questions I considered myself, Geoff Eaton, a business, and I feel I should hold myself to the same standard I would hold a business, if not a higher standard. And yes, like a business I do have a plan to ‘get where I want to go’. But the key component of this plan is identifying who I am, and gaining comfort with that person, and then remaining that person throughout the course of my plan.
This does not mean that I will not change throughout my plan, as I experience new and different situations, more to the point I will change consistently as I continue to experience. But once I acknowledged, and accepted who I am, I feel I was then, and am now, in a very solid position to address my situation, or implement my plan, or live life. However you want to phrase it. My point for writing today is to tell you of the value of this simple process and to encourage you to push yourself through it. If you decide to do it, please feel free to share your “answers” with me and I’ll do the same but only if you wish.
Medical Report: I will probably be back at the Doc’s office in the next couple of days and depending on blood work results we may begin to drop Prednisone again. Other drugs will most definitely remain consistent for the next while, and I am due my 1 year post-transplant vaccinations/shots in the next month. You may remember the needles you got at school, well considering I have a new immunesystem I need all those shots again. And my immunesystem as well as the body it protects are doing very well lately, lots of exciting stuff happening which you will hear about soon. Hope things in your world are great and I’ll be back again soon.
Live life. Love life.
Geoff
#4
