Steven Musngi http://www.stevenmusngi.com Branding and Business Strategist Mon, 10 Jun 2013 04:11:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2013/02/14/stepping-out-of-your-comfort-zone/ http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2013/02/14/stepping-out-of-your-comfort-zone/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:05:27 +0000 Steven Musngi http://www.stevenmusngi.com/?p=116 I’ve always been an introverted person and it has always taken time for me to open up to people. And public speaking? Forget about it. I might as well be one of those statistics of people who would rather die than speak in front of an audience. Although, knowing my goals and what I want to accomplish in my career,. In my current role as Marketing Director at Fat Atom Marketing, communicating is essential for my job and later for my ultimate goal of running my own successful business consultancy. But getting to where I want to go means getting out of my comfort zone.

Fulfilling your dreams and growing as a person means breaking out of your comfort zone and becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.

The question is why do many of us like to feel comfortable? Feeling comfortable is safe. Feeling comfortable means there’s no risk. Feeling comfortable means there is no chance for failure. No matter how wonderful comfortable feels, don’t go through life feeling comfortable. Feeling comfortable is limiting. Feeling comfortable means you’re letting fear take over and that keeps you from asserting yourself and persuades you to settle, rather than going after what you want. Feeling comfortable means you’re not being challenged and you probably aren’t growing. Have you ever heard of someone dying from feeling uncomfortable? Feeling some level of discomfort allows you to push yourself to see what you are capable of accomplishing.

Recently, I had two speaking opportunities to step out of my comfort zone.  One was for a small group of Marsh executives and the other was for employees and executives of DWA Healthcare Communications Group. I was speaking on behalf of the American Diabetes Association to tell my story about why I volunteer and participate in the Step Out: Walk To Stop Diabetes. Was I uncomfortable? Yes, at first, but I was prepared. I had practiced telling my story and was taking business communication classes to improve my presentation skills. After speaking at both functions, I received a positive and warm response. And I came out alive! This is just the beginning for me and I look forward to see how far I can step out of my comfort zone in other aspects of my life.

What are you doing to step out of your comfort zone? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

]]> http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2013/02/14/stepping-out-of-your-comfort-zone/feed/ 0 Life is too short. Love what you do and do what you love. http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/21/sample-post/ http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/21/sample-post/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:25:21 +0000 Steven Musngi http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/21/sample-post/ Are you able to say that you can unify your work and do what you love? Not many people find themselves in this position. Unfortunately, some people trade off what they love to do for “job security”. You know what I mean. A career with a large, well established or known organization that offers great salary and benefits. Somewhere along the line we’re told to find a career that makes money and is “secure”. Now, I’m not ignorant, we need money to pay the bills, keep the lights on and put food on the table. Although, for some reason many people trade off or give up what they love; what makes them feel alive for “security”. In awake of the recent recession there is no such thing as “job security”. If we have learned anything, nothing is guaranteed and you can not rely or depend on your employer to provide for you. If you’re going to work for an organization, it should be for what they stand for and their belief system. Their belief system and values should be aligned with yours.

For some reason many of us do not take the time to do that internal work to determine what our values or belief system truly is and whether it’s aligned with our actions or behaviors. Thankfully, about nine years ago I began doing that internal work. I had graduated with a degree in Finance and began searching for careers in that field. What I had learned in business school was important, but I wasn’t particularly passionate about finance. I was going down the path of having a career and finding an organization that had “job security.” But when I had started the interview process with some organizations I began to think to myself, “Is this something I want to do be doing 20 to 30 years from now?” I was most passionate about using my creativity. Throughout my life, most of my creativity came in the form of drawing. I loved and had taken many art and design classes in school, but didn’t know and wasn’t really encouraged to pursue a career in the art or design field. After asking myself that one question, I began to do some internal work to determine my beliefs, what I valued, what I loved, what was important in my life and where I wanted to go. The book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles helped me tremendously and from there I was able to determine what careers were best for me. I decided to go back to Herron School of Art and Design to pursue a degree in Visual Communication. And it was the best decision I have made in my life. Today, I’m Marketing Director for Fat Atom Marketing and I can truly say I am able to unify my work and do what I love.

Recently, I’ve read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination by Hugh MacLeod and in this book he calls any plan and evil plan if it unifies what you do for a living with whatever you truly love. Evil Plans isn’t just about making money. It’s about becoming the person you need to be. If money’s a part of it fine. If it isn’t that’s fine too. After reading Evil Plans, it has reconfirmed that going back to school for Visual Communication was one of the best decisions of my life.  But I can’t say that the decision was all mine. This was definitely in God’s plan for me. That period of time when I was trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life was difficult. I was lost. While I had the support of my parents, I could still feel some resentment toward my decision. I knew that they wanted me to go down the other path and frankly I was torn on what to do. At this point in my life I wasn’t religious, but I had prayed. I didn’t ask for anything in particular, just for God to give me strength and guide me in the right direction. Thankfully God listened and has blessed me.

Life is too short. Unify your work and do what you love. And do it with passion. God willing.

]]> http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/21/sample-post/feed/ 0 Hello world! http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/04/hello-world/ http://www.stevenmusngi.com/2012/01/04/hello-world/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:54:03 +0000 Steven Musngi http://www.stevenmusngi.com/?p=1 Thank you for visiting my website! Currently I’m in the process of adding my work to my portfolio. Through my blog, it’s my hope to bring inspiration, education and/or entertainment to you through my thoughts, observations, sketches, designs and/or things around me that I’ve found and would like to share. Many of my future posts will deal with branding, business strategy and design because I am most passionate about these subjects. One of my other fascinations is the human condition. It’s always interesting to observe and try to understand people’s beliefs, philosophies and behaviors because it is these things are what create the current conditions of our society. I look forward to responding to comments on my posts and having a great conversation. Thank you for taking the time to see the world through my eyes!

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