How do you want to live your life?

It’s true that many people are unaware of what they really need or want. This is something we see in individuals and in businesses as well.

Sometimes our biggest problem is simply not knowing what to do.

Are you or were you unhappy with your job? A lot of people are trapped in job narratives they don’t want. This could be caused by various events. The question is how will you switch from the old you, the old narrative, and transition into your new story? If you have a business that needs to change, how will it happen? The isolation period of Covid-19 is providing an opportunity to start working on the skills needed for a new job.

For many businesses it is demanding a new business strategy. During quarantine we have an unusual opportunity for self observation. Covid-19 quarantine is the perfect time to think about and discover what you want to be. What do you most want to do? Usually I would recommend not being too quick to make drastic changes. However, Covid-19 is such a huge pattern interrupt it will give many people a quick boost to start rewriting their life story.

The first step in this rebirth is becoming aware of the value of change and what kind of change you want. What path should you take? What do you want to be when we get back to a new normal?

Narrative Optimization using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Strategies.

I’m referring to narrative elements as entities after how search engines classify people, places, and things. Search engines classify an entity as “A thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable.” Pinterest calls these entities interests.

Entities can be identified as linked parent child hierarchies of interests. For Personal Narrative Optimization we’ll also include values and beliefs in our definition of interests. Values and beliefs also have their counterparts in search engine algorithms. E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) Search engines use the acronym EAT to determine if a website is of low, medium or high value.

Considering these same signals for our own life may prove helpful. What are you an expert in or at? We have all developed some expertise in some aspect of life and making a living. How will you use this expertise in the new normal? Will the same knowledge and skills still be relevant or will you need to change?

Next we need to ask, what do you want to be an expert at? Is there something you need to learn, or develop a deeper understanding of? If so, Covid-19 might just be the perfect opportunity for developing those skills. Once you have acquired the skill, how will you convince the world that you now have expertise in that area of life? You may have the skill, but you will still be lacking authority.

Authority is not only based on skill, but on cultural acceptance of knowledge and skills. I find trust an interesting trait. When making big life decisions we need to trust that we’re doing the right thing. We need to trust in ourselves. I think most of us have some doubt about making life changing decisions. This is especially true during a plague like Covid-19. The other part of trust is trusting others. Can we trust those in our close social sphere? Can we rely on the people we are close to? Can we be relied upon? What is a person’s trust factor?

Both Yahoo and Google used to have what was called a TrustRank. Each search engine used these scores to measure different aspects of a website. People also use an intuitive ranking system to score trust. Where do people in your support group fall on the trust hierarchy? What is their trust score? Trust can be a transient trait. A person may have a low trust score, but be trusted in some situations. Even more interestingly is, in some leadership positions, trust is given on personality traits while ignoring all trust factors.

How much do you value trust in a particular relationship? How we measure trust is contextual. Usually more expensive transactions require more trust. Choosing a life partner requires more trust than a casual relationship. It also requires a more general and overarching trust. The same goes for a business partner. We may do a business transaction with someone who’s a little shady, if it doesn’t involve too much risk, but we don’t want them as a business partner. Trust is an entity. As an entity its place in a hierarchy can seem complex and even paradoxical.

For our everyday life we can use a 10 point system to score trust. The trust score will consist of a rating from -5 to +5. +5 is the highest, +4 and +3 are high, +2 and +1 are medium trust with -1, -2, -3, and -4 descending to the lowest score of -5. This can be helpful when used to evaluate the element of acceptance in my Attraction – Acceptance – Incentive model.

As mentioned earlier the amount of trust needed is often transaction dependent. Some of the controlling variables are the benefits, costs, and risk of a decision. Probably Google, Facebook, and Microsoft know who we are better than we do. What is your trust score with those who rely on you? Start rating the reliability of your daily behavior using the trust score. Does your trust score match your objectives?

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What do you value?