Century ImageThis year I will be celebrating my first half century of existence.

A century seems like a pretty big chunk of time, yet when we look at what advancements occur, it seems to just go “wooooooosh!”

Basic communications technology alone has really changed the way things have been going during the most recent 50 years.

In my teen years, during the 70’s and early 80’s, pop stars and celebrities found their public voice through seemingly serendipitous connections to backers with money and influence. Without fairly deep pockets and strategic positioning on radio, television and through print media, such as magazines and newspapers, it was almost impossible to reach audiences of any magnitude.

Since the early to mid 2000’s, we’ve seen case after case where smart and talented individuals have suddenly appeared from within the masses. These success stories show us how just about anyone can exert influence on the world, simply by crafting an intelligent strategy and using the internet and other basic communications tools available to most all of us.

Now that a turn-key approach is at hand, and influence is really within anyone’s reach, the following question has become even more important than ever:

“What do I want my influence to be?”

Perhaps by imagining ourselves as the guest of our favorite daytime or late night talk show, we can visualize the type of topics we would address and how we would want to come across. Would we prefer to be seen as a serious, somber intellectual? Would we entertain? Would it be an enlightening revelation to the world, when they discovered what has been knocking around in our brains? The worst case scenario, of course, would be that it didn’t really matter, and that our appearance was a “non-event” with very little lasting impression made.

The bottom line is, that with or without a TV appearance, we ALL want to MATTER and to have some scale of influence on the world at some point or another in our lives. It may never be our destiny to actually possess that proverbial “15 minutes in the sun” yet we do each have at least 16 waking hours every day to interact with some segment of the world and to leave things a little bit better than they were before we got here.

Consider what your influence has already been, and then what you would wish it to be in another few years. Here are a few questions that have been designed to help you gain some focus on what your own unique stamp on the world might look like.

Take a few minutes to discover a new angle on who you are by answering the following questions in the most genuine regard. These answers don’t have to be shared with anyone. Be fully honest with yourself.

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being serious and 10 being funny, I am a _____.
2. With 1 being a thinker, and with 10 being a feeler, I am most comfortable to be seen as a _____.
3. If I were on a TV interview, I would prefer to be interviewed by _________________________________.
4. If I could interview three prominent historical or present day people, they would be: ____________________________________, __________________________________ and ______________________________________.
5. If someone wrote a book or a TV sitcom about my life, its title might be: _________________________________________________________________________.
6. If someone dedicated a song to me because of my legacy, it would be ________________________________, sung by _________________________________________.
7. The people who know me best, my family and closest friends, see me as: ___________________, ________________, ________________, __________________, ______________________, _________________
8. If I picked up a paper a few years from now to read an article that had been written about me, I would be honored and satisfied to see that someone had described me with these words: _______________________, ________________________, ________________________, _________________________, __________________________, _________________________, _____________________________

Perhaps the answers to these questions won’t come to mind immediately, and that’s okay. Give yourself a huge gift by staying with these questions, even if it takes a few days, until you have arrived at the answers.

These answers don’t have to be carved in stone. Perhaps over time, your own self-definition will evolve. That is perfectly fine, too.

The good news is, we have begun a journey on the clarification of your own focus of influence. As a result, you are in a much better position to direct your actions, attitudes and strategies around who you really WANT to be, rather than how you might otherwise just end up.

This is empowering. It gives you the fuel to create the influence of your dreams.

Although you can’t completely control the way others view you, you are still the director of your own story, and your starring role in the process of developing your own influence can be a fulfilling, energizing lifelong adventure.

These are exciting times. Your influence on your own influence is full of possibility! By recognizing and shaping your public image with deliberate analysis, such as the questionnaire above, you can more readily bridge the gap between your dreams and your reality.

This is only the beginning, but it’s a critically important part of the journey, so jump in with both feet!