Rebranding and Giving Back To the Community

During this whole rebranding process, I came to realize that I had lost  a lot of empathy and compassion for others that I used to have.  A series of events and daily interactions with others had led to this ever increasing decline in my compassion for my fellow man.  Even the sporadic meditation I used to do has been unable to quell this dwindling faith in humanity that I used to have. Part of me has had to wonder if any of this ties into my current employ, where I deal with situations that require large measures of both. Unfortunately one begins to wonder if the wells of empathy and compassion cannot go dry when we find ourselves forced to dig deeper and deeper with out anything to restore these stores.Originally part of my rebranding process centered around me trying to get my writing, blogging and poetry  as the soul focus of what I intended to change.

As I dug down into the parts of me what I wanted to be the face of my brand I also realized that I wanted to be able to give back to my community. Unfortunately I began to see the areas where I wanted to put my efforts in to help were outside my current skill set. I therefor have decided to add to my rebranding process going back to college to finish my degree.  I would like to work with underprivileged  juveniles, in hopes of inspiring in them the desire to learn and further their own education  either through traditional means or through the autodidact process.  I also want to work these same juveniles in hopes to inspire in them to engage in working on creative fiction or poetry. Many times this demographic doesn't receive the encouragement and motivation necessary to inspire them to reach for higher education, or see how even pursuing an course of autodidactism can benefit them greatly. There also runs the risk of students in need of advance placement education being overlooked in these demographics as well.  In order for me to do this, I will need to go back to school and restart my degree as I have been out of school for so longer.  This I hope will allow me to give back and put what little empathy and compassion I have left to good use.

I think when most people look at changing themselves, they tend to opt for only changing what they are without realizing in order to truly be a better person we have to be able to give back to the community,  We sometimes forget that we need to utilize the skills we have to help inspire other. On a small scale I hope the relaunch of my blog will reach out and inspire others to further their autodidact pursuits as well and inspire others in producing creative fiction.  I also hope that I can help others on their own path to rebranding.

Rebranding and Opportunity Costs

I've been approaching this rebranding idea with much enthusiasm, unfortunately today I was confronted with my first roadblock.  Well to be honest the second roadblock.  I realized my attitude and how I present my appearance  are huge parts of my brand, unfortunately I didn't realize how negatively my attitude toward the world had turned, I have grown coldly cynical, unwaveringly pessimistic and unnecessarily judgmental.  I do not consider myself a bad person but I know that these three negative traits are huge parts of my personality that need to be changed. The problem with taking stock of oneself is that it requires a level of strength for that sort of introspection. It was very easy to come up with the things that I needed to improve on, but when it came to focusing on the 10 things people like about me, I was at a loss for words.  I do not know if I can hold low self esteem accountable for the inability to create that list, or the fact that I never have really focused on the more positive aspects of my personality.  It was a difficult task to undertake, but I found that I could uncover some positive traits that will become the focus of the personal brand I am trying to create.  I will persevere though, to diminish the negative traits and focus on enriching the positive ones. 

Appearance, I had believed was my first roadblock.  I had never been someone who wholly concerned themselves with appearance.  My uniform of choice had always been jeans or khakis, a black t-shirt, a quirky shirt from lookhuman.com or a polo shirt.  It was not that I ever appeared unkempt, it was just that I never really took to heart the idea of dressing for the image I want to convey to others,  I know I need to change this, my best friend JL, reminded me "that you need to dress for the job you want not the job you have."   Similarly, it reminded me that I needed to dress to present the image that best reflects me as the individual and personal brand I want to put forward.  JL never reads this blog, I just hope my friend realizes how deeply indebted I am to her for being the voice of reason in my head when my own fails me. 

The idea of opportunity costs  was one that I started to reflect on after listening to a TED talk earlier this evening.  Opportunity cost as defined by google.com is "the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen." It is a term that utilized primarily in economics but it can be taken out of the field of economics and applied to how we approach all things in life.  Ultimately we have to ask ourselves if we do this, what do we potentially lose?  I forced myself to think about opportunity costs in relation to the trade off of continuing the path that I had heedlessly been following, treading aimlessly without any thought to pursuing my ambitions.  I realized by doing so I was living a life that-- although not meaningless, it was not fully meaningful or purposeful and it was not adding value to my life, nor did it enable me to add value to anyone else's life. Understanding this allowed me to really see what I was losing in the opportunity cost trade off, mostly my own happiness and wasting my life.

I have decided to share part of my journey of rebranding here in hopes that it assists you dear reader if you intend to rebrand yourself as well. 

Changes and Motivations

Although I have never been good at being a consistent blogger, it has come to my realization lately that I need to really focus on cultivating my passions in life.  If asked, I'd have to respond that my passions are my writings, my poetry and my belief in autodidactic pursuits. This blog originally was supposed to be a reflection of that; much to my own dismay and a series of unfortunate time mismanagement issues I let this fall by the wayside and didn't focus on it like I should have.  My apologies to you dear reader if you had hoped that I would have been more consistent in this endeavor.  Do not lose hope in me please.

It an age where image is everything and how we present ourselves ultimately becomes it's own form of  currency we forget that we as individuals are our own Brand.    I've had to do a great deal of thinking about the person I present myself as.  In retrospect I realized the version of me that people see is not the Brand of myself that I want individuals to see.   I spent some time reading Colin Wrights book on Personal Branding , it brought me to the conclusion that I needed to focus on the brand that I want to put forward.  At the end of the day I know that I am a writer, a poet, a blogger and an autodidact and I want my brand to reflect that.

So in the coming months I will be working on rebranding the identity I want to convey to others that will also add more value to your own lives so that what I offer in my blog will not only enrich my life but also your own. January 1st of 2016 will see the launch of a new but old endeavor of mine.  I intend to launch a new blog/website that will focus on my endeavors and will also help those of similar passions cultivate those habits and pursuits in their own way.  I just hope dear reader that you can bear with me in these upcoming months as I slowly start to transition over to this new project.  I will still try to update here but I can only hope that you will stick with me and that in the coming year I will be able to offer you content that will enrich your life and work.

Transitions

I find myself making various transitions in my life, getting myself on a path that is attuned to the way I want to live my life.  As I do this I have come to realize that An Intellectual Hermitage itself is in need of a makeover.  I am considering migrating it to a wordpress site.  I've also decided to get myself back into educational program as well as rededicating myself to my writing program.  

Nanowrimo is swiftly approaching and I have realized that this year I am going to participate and focus on really finishing one of the many novel ideas that I have had in the works.   I have found that I really need to focus on what is important to me.  My literary ambitions have always been lofty, but as I get older I realize that this is the life that has coursed through my veins unlived.  Today I took one of the many steps necessary in order to live the way I wish to live.

As I traverse this new path I also intend to focus more on posting blog posts more, as well as tying this in to my Instagram and Twitter, I do not know if I will integrate my facebook into this as well, but that is just a far more personal aspect of my life that I am not sure I am ready to make public to anyone aside from those who know me in real life.

I hope dear reader that you will indeed stay with me on this new course as I walk a new road.....

I haven't touched this blog in ages

I haven't touched this blog in ages, and I have decided to rekindle this project that I have let fall by the wayside.

Books and minimalism

So I've been struggling, the book nerd in my abhors the idea of giving up my tangible paper books.  Unfortunately the minimalist in me is telling me to give up the paper and move to an e reader so I don't have books taking up space.  I need to reduce the amount of stuff I own...I keep feeling this odd sense of needing to minimlize, start doing the food is free project, donate to citizen radio, convert to a gf vegan, and just start living the way I feel I need to to live fully and compassionately.

Thoughts out loud

I am on the 3rd day of a migraine, and currently all I can think about is what am I doing, I mean the truth of the matter is all I want is to get rid of all the shit I don't need, keep my books, and get a tiny house ...I'm tired of being weight down by shit that just doesn't even matter anymore, but in order to do this I need to ...I have to find a way to make money and pay for health insurance without my current job...