My big change in 2011 was in my reflexes, which went from slow to lightning fast. You know how you see a glass falling and you know you can’t catch it? You know it’s going to hit the ground, and you pray it won’t shatter. Well, I can catch it (or whatever I drop) now. Every time. And I do it without thinking.

It’s not just about dropping stuff either. My decision-making process has been permanently altered. Where I used to deliberate on virtually any decision, I now make most decisions in seconds flat.

This was not a conscious choice, nor anything I practiced. It was a direct result of surviving pain. I had no idea the transformation was occurring, and I didn’t fully recognize it until perhaps a year later. I started by noticing I could catch that falling glass. Then by seeing that I made choices faster; that snap decisions truly were a snap. Awesome!

Every time we undergo a significant life event, a change occurs in our approach going forward. There is value in taking a moment to reflect on the changes, so you can see how far-reaching they are and how they influence the rest of your life.

You may not even be aware that your personal brand has been strengthened along the way. Once you recognize change, you can use the result to improve your confidence and enhance your message.

It’s important to know your limitations, but equally valuable is breaking through them.

Last week, I wrote about having a tooth pulled and reflecting on not being able to do what my oral surgeon does. The teeth pulling part, no, I still can’t do that. I had to return though as pain persisted, and two seconds after looking at me, he said, “You’ve got a dry socket.” Lovely.

Most people say dry socket is horrifically painful. After what I survived in 2009, dry socket is nothing. Still, it was keeping me from sleeping, so I had to do something. My oral surgeon packed the socket, and relief was immediate. Then he asked me if I could do the same on the weekend?

“I could try.”

No hesitation. Just a simple, I could try. And I just did it. Knowing the benefit often makes the seemingly impossible possible.

I’ll admit, I woke this morning with the singular thought that I had to repack the tooth socket. Then, instead of doing it, I hunted around on the interwebs for curved forceps like my oral surgeon’s, before finally settling in with the tweezers from my Swiss Army pocket knife.

It was a process of disseminating doubt and fear: ‘Can I or can’t I?’ And, ‘Do I have the confidence or not?’ And, ‘Can I use these tiny tweezers?’ In the end, impending relief won out, and I just did it.

Sometimes the thought of what we need to do conjures fear, but the reality of what needs to be done is actually quite different. All we have to do to get past the fear is take the small step of admitting that we can try. This is one way to begin changing your personal brand.

Lately, it seems that every phone call I make to a customer service department at nearly any company, from those known for their stellar customer service, to those not so known for it, is answered by someone whose number one priority it is to assert just how right they are.

It doesn’t matter what I have called about because 99% of the time, they aren’t listening. All they seem to want to do upon answering the call is let me know that they are right. Their opinion is the only one that matters. Have a question? We don’t care. We’re not here to answer your questions. We’re here to be right. Is our product defective? Don’t care about that either as long as we’re right. 

If everyone was perfect, it would be a pretty boring world. We learn from our mistakes. A mistake is a small form of failure. Failure rocks because it teaches us how to succeed. “Why do we fall down? So we can learn how to pick ourselves back up.” (- Batman Begins, 2005)

All of this rightness begs the question: If every company is always right, who does that leave to be wrong?

It leaves only the customer to be wrong. How do you think that makes customers feel?

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
Think about it for a second. You’ve just given your hard-earned money to a company. You’ve got a question or a problem, so you call customer service, and the first thing they tell you is that you’re wrong or your question is irrelevant. How does that make you feel?

This kind of rightness can only lead to resentment and a damaged brand. The good news is that always being right presents opportunities for competitive companies to steal away business. People do business with people they relate to. People make mistakes. Companies make mistakes. When they can admit it, they go well together. When companies claim to be perfect, humans can no longer relate to them, and they move on to someone else.

When companies claim to always be right as a flawed tactic for eliminating liability or due to an over-inflated ego, they are really losing customer loyalty by alienating people and creating a disconnect that damages their brand reputation.

Whether you are building a personal brand or protecting a corporate brand, you must learn to relate to your customers, admit your shortcomings, and embrace your failures. Only after doing these can you realize your greatest possible success.

My call to businesses great and small: Go out and fail today!