A great practice for building a brand is balancing for an extended period of time on one foot. What you do with the other foot is incidental initially. It’s enough just to lift it off the ground an inch or two. As you learn to focus your gaze on a specific spot on the floor or wall in front of you, you’ll eventually be able to lift the other foot higher, put your arms in the air, stare over your shoulder or up at the ceiling. You’ll be able to hold the pose even if a door slams shut.
Mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain, is equanimity. I first became exposed to equanimity through yoga, and I realized immediately it was one of my most under-developed resources.
Building your brand – online, in your local community, within a network of colleagues or peers – requires equanimity. Putting yourself “out there” begs a reaction. And those reactions can quickly turn into distractions that make us unstable.
Will you be blinded by “likes?” Thrown off by critical comments? Incited by criticism? Swayed by opinion? Distracted by the competition? Frustrated by lack of results?
If you build your brand on your core values – if you brand who you truly are – your unwavering and predetermined commitment to these values becomes what yogis call your drishti, or your gaze.
Drishti is not an “eyes on the prize” kind of gaze. It’s not eager or tense. It’s an ability to stare in a single direction and tune out distractions. In yoga, a specific drishti is preassigned for each posture. It may be the nose, the navel, the toes. By maintaining drishti, you maintain balance. You establish equanimity in your position.
Determine your drishti before you take up your brand position. If you haven’t, stop and do so now. Find the point upon which your gaze will remain, even when the market gets noisy. Don’t look away, even as the world is shifting. Because when you do, you’ll take a tumble.
Practice equanimity in your position. Your brand will cultivate strength and grace far beyond what you dreamed could be possible.
