Footprints: Mindfully Creating Your Digital Image

The Story

With the weather in western Pennsylvania so temperate and beautiful, I decided recently to take my daily walk on a local trail. It was beautiful day, sunny and quite hot, and my feet felt sweaty. So I decided to take my boots off and walk barefoot for a change!

As I started down the trail, I found I had to pay close attention. The previous day's heavy rain had made large ruts on the path. That, combined with lots of mud, made the trip down hill both challenging and exciting. It also made it quite easy for me to see the footprints of all the critters who had travelled the same path earlier in the day.

I moved forward cautiously, making sure each foot was solidly planted before lifting the alternate foot. It took me back to a time when I was hiking with my mentor and she advised me (on a similarly treacherous incline) to "put my brain in my feet." Her wisdom, combined with my mindful movements, helped me to arrive at the bottom of the trail in one piece!

The Technology

Its been a few months since my last post. I've been busy building my consulting business, doing some online work, and collaborating on a new community project. That has left little time for keeping up with my blogging!

With my clients I've been focused on making mindful changes to their digital footprints. We have been exploring the questions:

• Who created the footprints of you online - who is responsible for that digital image?
• Is it the image portrayed online how you see yourself - or want to have others see you?
• How can your image online be changed - what steps will you take to accomplish the goal?

Based on the answers, we sit down and craft a plan of action - and then we choose tools to match the goals. After setting up the digital tools, my clients begin the task of generating new and more aligned content. They aim to matching the image they want to share, creating and posting new content. Part of my ongoing work is to monitor, support, and encourage the organic re-creation process.

Connections

If you've been this blog for some time, I bet you can make the next step yourself. Can you see the connections between the barefoot hiking story and the technology portion of this post?  Can you combine the wisdom of both - becoming mindful, slowing down, recognizing the impact that you have in creating your own life, your own lived reality?  Can you see how noticing the footprints you've left behind will help you to "get your brain in your feet" and take charge of creating the mindful digital image you want?


One of the ways I facilitate this process with my clients is by employing a simple three step process:

1. Take a long hard look at your digital image.   This means Googling your name in various ways and clicking through ALL of the content pages that come up in the results.  Without looking at everything that's out there, you won't really know what message your footprints are sending to the world.
2. Decide how you would like to change your digital image.  This means making lists of what you like and don't like about the content that shows up.  It also means deciding what you want people to know about you, and thinking about how you would like to alter or improve the image that's already there.
3. Create a plan of action, stick to it, and put accountability measures in place to ensure you achieve your goal.   This means creating new content, learning to use new digital tools to share that content, and sticking to a daily or weekly plan of adding new material to the web.  If you want to see change - you have to take regular action to make it happen.  Consider asking a friend or partner to check up on your work to make sure you keep your momentum going.

With my clients, we begin each new meeting by reviewing progress made and talking about any roadblocks or changes we'd like to make to the action plan.  I also have started using Google's new "alert" feature to monitor key words related to my clients names, their businesses, and their digital content.  The alerts send me an email any time new content is posted using those key words - so I know when my clients have been working (and when they have not).  I encourage you to try out these steps for yourself and see how you are able to modify your own digital footprints!

PS:  If you haven't walked barefoot in the mud since childhood, consider giving it a try again! You don't know what you are missing!

Images courtesy of: http://pixabay.com