what do you do | David M Masters

As integrous as I try to be, even I may say one thing and do another. For the longest time, I thought the one thing I would like to have etched in my gravestone would be the words, “Here lies a man who kept his words and lived by them.” Yet, even I can see that even I fall short, if I am able to see myself objectively. This leaves you wondering, “Why people say one thing and do another?”

The answer is far more complex than you might think. People are not as they appear, ever. You can have a general sense of how someone is, but you will never know everything which comprises any person you think you know, even if you know their entire backstory. You can never know what’s going on in someone else’s head.

All of us are a jumbled mess of incongruencies. Living, breathing contradictions. As hard as you might try to set an example of keeping your word, of being congruent, living a life in harmony with the words you speak, the contracts you make, still you falter, even if you can’t see it at the time (and few of us can see it due to the limitation(s) of our perspective in the moment).

Our lives are filled with living contradictions with our words, our agreements, and our lives.

There are contradictions in the words we say, like, “I’ll be there at four,” and you show up at 3:55 or 4:05. “I will pick up the items on your list from the store,” but you forget to get the milk which was on the list.

Every once and a while, even with the best intentions, we fall short of the words we speak. Unintentionally, life prevents us from being perfectly in alignment with the words we speak.

Contradictions in the contracts we make. You agree to make your payments on time, yet every so often, you are late and incur a late fee, get turned into collections, file bankruptcy, lose your car, or your house.

Some people go so far as to pledge their love and allegiance to another in marriage and end up getting a divorce.

Contradictions in the life we lead, like you see someone who lives their life with integrity, vowing never to engage in self-harm, yet he or she stuffs their mouths with unhealthy food and is overweight.

Or there are heavy people who do not exercise, yet wear sports apparel which contradicts their lifestyle.

Someone could live their lives in complete and utter chaos, but their home is immaculate.

The list goes on and on, as our lives demonstrate that we are not what we say or think we are.

Someone might be saying that they would never do or say a thing, while they are doing the very thing they say they would never do.

Some people go so far as to accuse you of doing something they are actively doing in the moment. If that isn’t confusing, I don’t know what is.

Having the knowledge of these life incongruencies can help you find the triggers which create the contradictions in your life.

You see yourself as a kind and loving person, yet you judge and criticize others, or could care less about people who are not intimately associated with you.

Now that you know that this is a contradiction in your life, you can take the steps necessary to either make the changes or redefine your perception of yourself to include the variations.

This is the decision made by those who desire to live a life of alignment or coherence.

These are the people who self-evaluate and make the necessary adjustments in their lives to be less of a human contradiction in an effort to live a harmonious lifestyle.

Do you know people say one thing and do another? Are you one of them?

I think if you are honest, you will find that you are. We all are to some degree or another.

What’s a good example of people say one thing and do another?

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Everything revolves around your answers to the two questions every person you meet asks you, “Who are you? What do you do?”

When you’ve decided to take a stand or make your mark, you will be miles ahead doing the preliminary work of creating a platform to support yourself along the way, so prepare for exponential success.

Who Are You?

To start off, you must define who you are. Of course, you know who you are, but how are people who don’t know you going to know who you are and what you do? Lets stat with who you are.

Try to encapsulate in a few paragraphs your life as it has led until now. No need to go into great detail, but be certain to include key elements which helped develop you into the person you are today. Don’t worry if you think your life has been lackluster or unglamorous. If you think your life was awful, look at these famous celebrities who suffered prior to achieving their highest and best.

Be brief, but transparent. Enquiring people want to know you have a history, and who knows? Your story may be incredibly inspiring for someone else.

What Do You Do?

This is the second question anyone asks you, so be ready with a one-sentence answer about what you do which sets you apart from anyone else. But before you answer this question, you will be miles ahead, if you know your purpose, message, passion, and mission (PMPM). I know many people who were forever known as one thing because they were not congruent with their PMPM at the time they were visited by media exposure and lived to regret it.

Armed with a clear sense of who you are and what your PMPM is, you can go about the work of creating your congruent unique identity, which we refer to as your brand.

Let’s take a brief look at what this might look like. Let’s say, for instance, you are a man who was raised in an urban neighborhood where cats over-populated the area. But you admired the cats, not far from being homeless yourself, as a young child, you could imagine what it might be like to be a disadvantaged cat. You could relate to them, you had compassion for them.

Then, one day, you visited your grandmother in a nursing home, to you, she seemed to be in a crowded facility, yet alone, not unlike a cat. So, one day you brought a cat from the neighborhood, “Scruffy,” one that you had nurtured to health, and gifted it to your grandmother.

It changed your grandmother’s life and the two of them, the grandmother and Scruffy lived out their lives together in joyous harmony. This was when you realized what your mission in life was to be.

Who Are You?

I’m JAG, just a guy who was raised in a neighborhood overrun by cats, but I loved them and became known as the Man Who Saves Cats.

What Do You Do?

I’m a Feline Rescue Engineer and as the Man Who Saves Cats, I match disadvantaged cats with people whose lives can be enhanced by the love and affection a cat can give.

Add to these a simple 30-second elevator speech, which you have practiced and can quickly recite verbatim and you are almost there because you’ll want to make sure you…

Buy the Dot-Com

In my Branding Masters seminars, a key component of capitalizing on those brief moments in time when the planets align, and you have a few seconds to capitalize on your media exposure, the dot-com makes all the difference. So, having the dot com which represents who you are and what you do (if at all possible. If not, keep reinventing, until you can find an available and catchy dot-com) is so important.

Properly prepared and positioned you can fulfill your life’s mission with expanded efficacy by laying the proper groundwork. Then, if you ever find yourself in front of a microphone, for even the briefest of moments, you can take advantage of that moment in time to expand the reach of your mission, even more.

Even if you are a witness to an unrelated freak accident or disaster, the interviewer will ask those two questions. If your answer includes “Man Who Saves Cats” and “Feline Rescue Engineer” and you own those dot-coms, and have information on those websites delineating who you are, what your mission is, and how people can join you in your mission, you’ve grasped the ultimate brass ring.

If this happens to you, and you are prepared, people will mob rush

manwhosavescats.com
and
felinerescueengineer.com

You will see your web servers explode with web traffic, your email servers will smoke, and your phone will ring off-the-hook if you’ve taken these preliminary steps. This man could easily then launch the Ultimate Pet Rescue.

You can also take the necessary steps to increase your credibility as a source and expert in your field. See: Where is Your Credibility?

If you are prepared in this way, when good fortune is visited upon you, others will see it as an instant overnight success, as if lightning had struck, never knowing that you had carefully laid the groundwork to ensure your success in the event of such a lightning strike.

Elsewise, you will have been just another nameless face on the TV, forever remembering that moment, when had you been prepared, could have made all the difference in the world. These moments are very difficult, if not impossible, to recreate.

When lightning strikes will you be ready?