Are The Right People Around You?

Building upon an idea requires the right people to provide support or to add insight .  My vision is fuzzy when it comes to visualizing color and creative interpretation.  I am working on a blog makeover and when I made the decision to do this, I felt like I was standing in a strange city without a map or GPS.  I was unsure of how to approach my vision.  On a whim, I reached out to someone I found online who has a side business of creative design for blogs and websites.  When I shared my vision, she replied with some abstract ideas that I loved.You know you have found the right person when you see their suggestions and say, “WOW! I love this!”  I can be a very literal person and while I can do many things, envisioning a creative or artistic design is difficult for me.  I can describe what I want and convey what inspires me but bringing that together into a picture can be tedious!  I need someone who can help me interpret my vision or show how colors or patterns can be complementary.

My strengths lie in areas that are less artsy and more logical.  I can envision ideas on a practical level and come up with concepts. When it comes to colors, coordination and aesthetics, it is a struggle.  I knew I had to find someone who could help me with my blog idea.  There are some things just better left to people have skill sets that are different than mine.  Plus, I really have little interest in doing creative design or blog design and much prefer the surprise of someone else’s interpretation and ability to run with a vision or an idea.  Ask me how to solve a problem, I can probably come up with a solution.  Ask me to pick out fabrics or patterns or colors for anything and you may see a blank look on my face.

It brings me to the idea of understanding your “power”.  What are the tools you have intuitively and naturally that you can share with someone else to help them along whatever path they are on?  What do you hold in your hands (figuratively) that you can work with and use that may be stifled or collecting dust?  We all have something and it can vary from ability to fix things to baking cakes to interior design to writing. Recognizing what you do well is really important.  Recognizing where it would be helpful to hire help or to have someone pitch in is always will serve anyone better.  It comes down to knowing your strengths and capitalizing and knowing your weaknesses and accepting them.  It takes so much more effort to try to make a weakness a strength and so little effort to ask someone if they can help when it would be most beneficial. For example, I have a friend who may as well be a professional shopper/stylist.  She has taught me how to incorporate colors and style into my wardrobe in ways that I can repeat on my own.  However, every now and then, I need her assistance shopping because she has a eye for fashion and I do the best I can.  When you ask for help or hire someone, make sure you have people who are excellent at what they do and make sure you choose people who will show up. Consistent. Reliable. Trustworthy. Objective. Present. Supportive. These are the words that come to mind for me when I think of who I want to working with me.  It is important to gather the right people to support your vision else you may find things slow down or do not turn out as you envision.  If you are lacking what you need in the people around you, make a change.  If you find yourself going to a person who understands your vision or can give you helpful objective or even actionable feedback or advice, then you have the right person. Know when to run with what or who you have and know when to bring someone new on board and to make a change to benefit your path.