Cultivating an image of success will ultimately attract success. In other, words, you attract what you present.
If you want to be the part, look and act the part. There’s a reason why actors turn up to auditions dressed as the character they’re hoping to play!
Successful image management should apply to every facet of your life, not just your professional career.
Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. In other words, if you want to be successful, you need to be with successful people.
But what does success mean to you? Is it working in a dynamic industry? Having lots of friends? Meeting someone who makes you feel happy and loved? You can have all this and more by not just working towards your goal, but by being your goal, right now.
Take a look around your immediate group of friends and family.
Who do you admire and why?
Is it your Uncle Pete, who’s had all those crazy life experiences and always has a story to tell? Then get out and have a crazy life experience of your own. Jump out of a plane, swim with dolphins, adopt a miniature horse.
Do you look up to your cousin Rosalind who always looks as though she’s stepped out of a magazine? Ask for her hair stylist’s phone number and get a few makeup tips. Do you wish you had as many qualifications as your colleague? Then enrol in a night course and get on with it.
The things you can do to attain a successful image don’t just rest with the physical. Working on your own intrinsic brand goes a long way toward success. To be brutally frank, you may just need a personality tune up. Do you want to be seen as being fun? Sincere? Reliable? Then be those things.
If you want to be a fun person, let go everything that isn’t fun. Moaning about your dead end job to your friends ad nauseum? Not fun. Stop doing it. Sitting on the couch at home every night? Not fun. Get out and do something that makes you feel good.
If you want to be the person who is invited everywhere, be the type of person who people will want to invite. Invest in charm, good humour, positivity and enthusiasm.
We are attracted to those who make us feel good about ourselves. Pay a few more compliments, be interested in the people you meet. Nothing is more off-putting than self-pity, cynicism and negativity. Even if you’re at your worst, making someone else feel good will make you feel better.
Think of those people you associate with success – the entrepreneurs, the happily romantic couple, the CEO’s, the inspiring thinkers and leaders. None of their successes happened by accident. They worked for it. They lived it and they breathed it. You can too. If you are willing to do the work then you can start… now.
Help me out here… tell me what you’re thinking.
Jon Michail is Group CEO of Image Group International, an award winning author and recognised Australasia’s No 1 image coach. Image Group International supports executives, entrepreneurs and their organisations to become iconic and monetised leadership brands.
He has been a regular commentator in international media including ABC, CNN, NBC, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Success, The Financial Review and Vogue.
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