New Direction Coaching Associates 2013 - YouTube

New Direction Coaching Associates 2013 - YouTube

Let's Go Natural!

We are living in a time where it has become more and more fashionable and acceptable to go natural.  Many people, including myself, have abandoned the world of relaxers or have released their addiction to the “straight dope” as the naturalist call it.  Everyone is going natural and becoming more organic conscience.

If we can come together to start such a great “movement” when it comes to our something as basic as our hair imagine what would happen if we all decided to go natural with our connections and relationships.

Social networks have broken the barriers of space and time, enabling us to communicate on a 24/7 basis with more people than ever before.  It appears that the focus has now turned to quantity versus quality, Superficiality versus authenticity!  In an ironic twist, social media has managed to make us less social; a substitute for the real thing.

How do we communicate effectively and build deeper, more authentic relationships when we utilize only words (some as little as 140 characters) instead of voice, face and body expression to get all the important and powerful distinctions that often contradict the words?

With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected – and potentially more disconnected – than ever before.

Here are some tale tale signs we are less connected now more than ever:

1.  Anyone can hide behind a text, e-mail, or Facebook post. The ever evolving twitter platform, projecting any image they want and creating the illusion of their choosing. We can be whoever we want to be. And without the ability to receive, otherwise organic, nonverbal cues, our audiences haven’t got a clue.

2.  You can know a lot of people and even be popular online, but never develop real connections. If the dynamics of the relationships we pursue are not adequate, they won’t bring any perceptible value in your life. The truth is, online we spend great lengths hiding who we really are only to settle for superficial pseudo relationships.

3.  Our ability to build and maintain healthy relationships is the single most important factor in how we get along in every area of life. We cannot ‘do life’ alone. Most of us have learned how miserable life really can be when you are cut off from meaning connections. All of life’s successes come from initiating relationships with the right people and then strengthening those relationships by being authentic.

‘Social media’ is making us less social. We’re disconnecting from the real world. I’ve been guilty many, many times of being at an event where every single person, including me, spent the first 5-10 minutes checking in on Facebook or Foursquare, taking a picture of the location on Instagram, reading their Twitter feed, checking Facebook notifications, and even emails.

I believe it’s time to go natural. To eat meals with friends and loved ones and not care about what else is going on in our “social” network. Take time to disconnect, relax and take in the beauty around them. This is the “organic” world that produces authentic and healthy relationships.

I remember being on vacation and everywhere I walked, I noticed more people than not staring at their phones and not looking around. They were at the dinner table eating, while headstrong into their phone. They were at the pool soaking up sun, but still hooked on their mobile device. They were on the beach, not looking at the amazing scenery, not communicating with the people around them, not experiencing that moment, but instead mesmerized by their Smartphone and tablets. At night they were in restaurants, clubs and bars hypnotized by the glow of their own phone.

Without saying anything at all, we’ve said to each other that we’re more interested in what’s going on everywhere else other than those that we’re with, even though that might not consciously be the case. As we keep playing into this behavior we’re becoming less present with those that are near us in social settings.

My hope simply put is for us all to slow down just a bit each day until we are finally taking in the beauties around and cultivating truly wholesome relationships along the way.

© 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.

4 Rules to Keep Your Personal Brand Respectable

How many times have our intentions been hindered by someone’s premature judgment? Specialist in the field of social behavior state that an opinion of you is made within 4 seconds of a person meeting you. That means if you had the slightest off day you could lose countless potential connections. We have to take time to understand that we are a walking, talking brand that is speaking louder than we know. If we adjust our perception and take care of our brand presence like the Fortune 500 companies we will see a tremendous jump in our effectiveness across the board.

By definition, a Brand is an unspoken promise of service or quality that people expect you to deliver. Whether you know they are expecting it or not, you have an obligation to come through or your reputation will suffer. Think of it this way, every single relationship you are in has an expectation attached. Your barber, church, business and even family all operate based on a brand. If mishandled, you can end up with all kinds of bad press about you. We live in a digitally connected world, something that happens in China this morning is appearing on local evening news. Information travels at light speed. One bad personal review can result in Twitter or Facebook posts within moments.

Google is not only the world’s most powerful search engine; it is a place for reputation management. Have you ever Googled yourself? Everything by you or about you has made its way online. It would be a smart thing to monitor how you are perceived so you can present the best possible view of who you really are.

Here are 4 rules to keep your personal brand respectable:

1. Own your online presence:  This means you have to adjust security settings on all your social media sites. Sites like Facebook allow others to post via your timeline and this can be a problem if they are posting inappropriate material. You cannot use the excuse that you didn’t do it when you have complete control of your page. Many have loss jobs and other opportunities because a simple search turned up party pictures and other risqué images.
2. Keep yourself presentable at all times:  When you are building your reputation as a professional you have to make sure you are seen as such. Nothing is more discomforting than meeting someone who claims to be a hair stylist but their appearance is horrible. You must look like you’re going somewhere. People form lasting opinions from first impressions.
3. No matter what you do, have a card:  It’s the small details that separate you from the crowd. No matter what your job title, it is always a good investment to have profession cards with your contact information on it. For less than 50 bucks, you can present someone with your phone and email without ripping a scrap piece of paper and searching for a pen. It lets others know you mean business.
4. Remember someone is always watching:  We all long to go some place and let our hair down. Everyone enjoys a good time. But there must be awareness that even in the midst of having fun, you carry yourself like a professional. I have attended countless corporate sponsored retreats and witnessed executives running about with their “shirts” off in the spirit of having fun. Only to be embarrassed walking into morning meetings. The moral of the story is, home is where your hair should be let down, and the public is for good professional fun.

Nike, Apple and Coke have all been in the news recently for issues surrounding those associated with them. The one principle that runs true with them all is the importance of the ‘brand’ over any one individual. The only thing that cannot suffer is the brand! Hopefully we all take a closer look at how we represent ourselves. Every day someone is making a judgment call about you, make sure they are getting the right one.

See you at the TOP!

© 2012 – 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.

Next Level Living: How Rebooting Can Set Your Life Back In Order

I’m a firm believer that inspiration is happening all around us; we just don’t take time to notice it. Such is the case I had the other day while coaching someone in my office. We were engaged in a discussion about her feeling frustrated for having to rebuild her life in her 40’s due to tragedy. She was lamenting about replacing her belongings and taking a position she was over qualified for just to pay her bills. In the midst of her rant I leaned over my PC and hit the power switch. Without missing a beat I continued talking while the computer began its process of rebooting. A few moments later I asked her if she noticed what I just did, she casually answered that I seemed to be rebooting my computer. She was right, but had no idea the lessons we can learn from a simple computer command.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a techy at all. I can get my PC on, send emails and write blogs, but that’s about it. But due to various issues and being on hold with the Geek Squad, I’ve learned a thing or two. At best I know that when all else fails, a manual reboot can do wonders for your system. I had a strike of inspiration while listening to my client. She was in the middle of a reboot and was upset about the process. I noticed several similarities between rebooting a computer and our lives. I think you will be able to see the value for both.

• Rebooting helps disrupt any virus attempting to attack: Understand that we all go through periods of down time. We get overwhelmed and need some time to gather ourselves and digest what’s going on. This is very similar to rebooting your computer. If something dangerous is detected, a manual reboot can literally prevent a total corruption. By stopping it from running, your computer can suffer minimum damage. That’s brilliant. The next time you have a horrible day, go home and reboot yourself. Take a long walk, read, or exercise. Doing this can reboot your system internally and prevent you from reacting in a way that can cause further damage.

• Rebooting can help serve as a system flush: The truth is we have a lot of junk in us. We carry around stress, bad experiences and even traumas from place to place without noticing the weight it causes. In the computer world you have something called the RAM or (Random Access Memory). Your RAM handles different short-term tasks and data, like running processes and holding program values. Rebooting your computer flushes out all this information, allowing your device to start anew and helping it run faster and more efficiently.  As you go to sleep nightly, you should be able to leave the day’s issues in today and start fresh in the morning. You create a better opportunity for success when you can reboot nightly.

• Rebooting helps install upgrades: We all have things on our ‘back burners’ that need our attention. Often they are projects and activities that will enhance our development and help us move forward. The problem is we are busy with so many other things that really don’t matter. By rebooting our lives, we bring into perspective what is important. These upgrades are needed to help us become all that we dream. Rebooting is simply finding time to get better.

If you’re reading this, you’re definitely online. If you’re online then chances are you have suffered from computer issues. How did you resolve them? For some, it was simply reaching out to a tech savvy friend, for others you sat on hold for an eternity to speak to a professional. Most of us can attest it ended with the suggestion to cut our computer off and reboot. It’s funny how a simple action can do so much. Let’s take heed and use this process to help set our lives back in order.

See ya at the top!

Early Jackson

© 2013, Early L. Jackson. All rights reserved.

Rebuilding Your Life After Tragedy

In his touching dedication to the victims of hurricane Katrina, rap artist Lil Wayne with the help of R & B singer Robin Thicke opened the song ‘Tie My Hands’ with these commanding lyrics; “Some say tragedy is hard to get over. But sometimes the tragedy means its over.” Often we don’t attribute enough praise and support to the art of surviving trauma. We tend to focus more on the items or people lost instead of the beauty of living to see another day. Long before we are prepared to take another step towards our dreams we must first acknowledge that we’ve survived. That in itself is a miracle.

If you were to pass a microphone around in any social setting and ask; ‘has anyone been through anything tough?’ you could have an instant Dr. Phil moment. Everyone has bad experiences in their past. The difference for some is how they learned to deal with it. Often in families there’s the teaching to sweep matters under the rug. They use the old motto ‘what happens in this house stays in this house.’ That only serves to create an environment where you are not free to express any feelings and certainly not pain. The illusion of healing is there because everyone is too busy keeping the family secrets. I’m not saying to go around telling every single detail of your past to strangers, but find a safe outlet with a friend or professional where you can have true expression.

Between what happened and what needs to happen next is called a transition. When we enter this stage of our journey it can become difficult. This difficulty exists because we don’t know how to handle our periods of uncertainty. A tragedy can rob you of who you were. But the beauty of ‘today’ is you can redefine who you desire to become. You do not have to enter your next level of life dragging the outdated memory of what was. You can cross with confidence knowing there’s something better for you after your loss.

Here are some great ways to manage a tragedy:

• Own your story:  We all have come from different places. Society sometimes attempts to categorize everyone by a set of labels. This literally robs us of our individuality. Your journey has costs you your life, at least you can tell your story your way.
• Since it’s your story, hold the pen for yourself:  The worst thing you can ever do is have someone else write your next chapter for you. People will tell you what to do based on their past, not yours. Be open to advice but in the end, if it is meant to be, it’s up to you
• Don’t allow your tragedy to define tomorrow:  Stop telling yourself it didn’t happen. The first step to healing is accepting the truth. You were hurt. You did suffer. But the story never ends there! The next question you should be asking yourself is, ‘what’s next for me?’ When you answer that, you have your next chapter.

Nothing is more demoralizing than to see a person’s story minimized. Even in the court of law you have the right to tell your side of the events. We live in a world that’s often too busy to listen anymore. But none of that means your journey is any less important. There are scores of people out there waiting to be liberated by the tale of your overcoming. To deny them access is to leave them in shackles. The fact that you had the guts to get up today and be ‘you’ is proof that you cannot keep a great person down. You are a living testimony that there is life after tragedy.

© 2012, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.