Is Popularity Your Goal?

I was introduced to Linda Esposito by way of a guest post she did for RedHeadWriting. I think I'm drawn to people that are real enough to use curse words and not worry about alienating people in doing so.

I've been following Linda on Facebook for a while now. She's a psychotherapist who specializes in anxiety issues. There's one blog post she wrote that I absolutely loved - 6 Reasons I'll never be a popular therapist.

It got me thinking about what the goal is in business. I asked myself if my goal was to be popular or to be recognized for a job done well, while being authentic to who I am. For me, the answer is the latter. 

I've done a lot of growth over the last year and while I had quite a bit of trepidation, mixed with excitement about being called a Chief Get Shit Done Officer, I realized that I'm completely ok with it because at the end of the day, it's who I am. Clients and friends know that when they need something done, they can call on me.

This also falls right in line with reason number 2 on Linda's list - "I swear like the truck driver's daughter." I don't know if I swear quite that much, but, I suppose it depends on who you ask and what the situation is. Contrary to the school of thought that using curse words is an example of an unintelligent mind trying to express itself, I know quite a few BRILLIANT individuals who curse from time to time. 

There are plenty of people out there making waves for many reasons and it's not hurting their pocketbooks in the end. 

Everybody isn't going to like everything you do, nor should they. If you're setting out to please all the people, you're going to drive yourself (and those around you) bat-shit crazy.

So, as the year is coming to an end and it's time to start thinking about what you want to do bigger, better, differently for 2014, you've got less than 2 weeks to ask yourself the tough questions and make the decisions about what you want to do, who you want to be, and what you want to release so that you can be better.

The thing is, when you are fully yourself, the people who can relate to you will come. It's that authenticity that we hear (and talk) so much about.

What is YOUR goal? Do you want to be great at what you do or do you want to be liked by everybody (popular)?