Gratitude can change your life

A grateful heart is a contented heart. A contented heart is a simple heart. And a simple heart leads to a simplified life.

Gratitude opens the door to simplicity. A person who is grateful for the things they own will care for them, enjoy them, and waste less energy seeking more. They will experience fulfillment in the gifts they already possess rather than looking outside themselves for more.

In contrast, those who can find gratitude in their current existence will be less influenced by those empty promises.

How can we find gratitude in a world that seeks to destroy it?


1. Intentionally choose it. Gratitude will never be a result of your next purchase, success, or accomplishment. It is available in your heart right now. And you will never find gratitude in life until you intentionally decide to choose it.

2. Count your blessings. A new day, a warm bed, a loving spouse, a child in your life, a unique personality, or a special talent… You have wonderful things in your life already. Gratitude quickly sets in when we begin to spend a quiet moment each day remembering them. This practice alone has the potential to change your heart and life immeasurably.

3. Have a morning gratitude session. Take one minute in the morning (make it a daily ritual) to think of the people who have done something nice for you, to think of all the things in your life you’re grateful for. You won’t get to everything in one minute, but it’s enough. And it will instantly make your day better, and help you start your day off right. Can you think of a better use of one minute?

4. When you’re having a hard day … make a gratitude list. We all have those bad days sometimes. We are stressed out from work. We get yelled at by someone. We lose a loved one. We hurt a loved one. We lose a contract or do poorly on a project. One of the things that can make a bad day much better is making a list of all the things you’re thankful for. There are always things to be thankful for — loved ones, health, having a job, having a roof over your head and clothes on your back, life itself.

5. When you face a major challenge, be grateful for it. Many people will see something difficult as a bad thing. If something goes wrong, it’s a reason to complain, it’s a time of self-pity. That won’t get you anywhere. Instead, learn to be grateful for the challenge — it’s an opportunity to grow, to learn, to get better at something. This will transform you from a complainer into a positive person who only continues to improve. People will like you better and you’ll improve your career. Not too shabby.

6. Instead of looking at what you don’t have, look at what you do have. Have you ever looked around you and bemoaned how little you have? How the place you live isn’t your dream house, or the car you drive isn’t as nice as you’d like, or your peers have cooler gadgets or better jobs? If so, that’s an opportunity to be grateful for what you already have. It’s easy to forget that there are billions of people worse off than you — who don’t have much in the way of shelter or clothes, who don’t own a car and never will, who don’t own a gadget or even know what one is, who don’t have a job at all or only have very menial, miserable jobs in sweatshop conditions. Compare your life to these people’s lives, and be grateful for the life you have. And realize that it’s already more than enough, that happiness is not a destination — it’s already here.

7. Open your eyes to those with less. Almost half the world, over three billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day. 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to clean water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Let those facts sink in for just a moment—and slowly allow gratitude and a desire to become part of the solution to take their place.

Working With Color in Adobe Photoshop

Any artist will tell you that the use of color is a major component of the design process, regardless of the medium. Digital art and photography are no exceptions. Color can be powerful and evocative, but only if you know how to use it properly.

For quiz

How to achieve goals

Most of us are a bit flawed in how we pursue our goals. We think that setting intentions and taking steps toward them is enough, but it’s not.

The basic principle to understand when doing this exercise is that in order to create anything new, we must remove the obstacles that are in the way.

Making a list of what we want is the easy part. Undoing blocks and then doing the work to co-create it is actually what brings it into physical form.

So what is in your way?

Obstacles and blocks include: fear, limiting beliefs, perceived lack of resources, time, attachment to other’s opinions, unforgiven issues from the past, toxic situations or relationships, and so on.

Once you identify your blocks, make an action plan for how you are going to address them head on.

Often the biggest obstacle is YOU.

You can be critical and downright mean to yourself. You often compare yourself or doubt yourself. You allow yourself to indulge in habits that you know are not moving you in the direction of your dreams. You lack faith and don’t trust the Uni-verse. You are waiting not to be scared to take a step forward. You spend more time looking at what’s wrong with you versus what’s downright awesome about you.

Does any of this sound like you? Even if you are this way sometimes, it is damaging. So as soon as you catch yourself in the act of self-sabotage, inwardly say, “I forgive myself for forgetting who I really am!” and get out of your own freaking way!

10 Illustrator Tools

In this article, we’re going to talk about the top ten most useful tools in Adobe Illustrator. Whether you’re into icon design, illustrations or any other craft, you’ll definitely want to read this article, since you’ll learn something new and interesting about the software that you use on a daily basis.

1.  The Ruler
2.  The Blend tool
3.  The offset path
4.  The Clipping mask
5.  The artboard panel
6.  The layer panel
7.  The pathfinder panel
8.  The align panel
9.  The grid
10.  Snap to grid/ Pixel grid

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QUICK TIPS The Flexbox Reading List: Techniques and Tools

Flexbox gives us a new kind of control over our layouts, making coding challenges that were hard or impossible to solve with CSS alone straightforward and intuitive. It provides us with the means to build grids that are flexible and aware of dynamic content, and thus, give us the freedom to focus on the creation process instead of hacking our way towards a layout

To give you a head start into Flexbox and provide you with ideas on how to use it to master common coding challenges, we have collected tips, tricks, and tools that help you get the most out of its power already today. The list is by no means complete but includes the resources which we found helpful and useful.

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Responsive Image Breakpoints

In our responsive layouts, breakpoints refer to the viewport sizes at which we make changes to the layout or functionality of a page. These typically map to media queries.

Responsive image breakpoints are similar, but slightly different. When I think about image breakpoints, I’m trying to answer two questions:

• How many image sources do I need to provide to cover the continuum of sizes that this image will be used for?
• Where and when should the various image sources be used?

The answers to these questions lead to different breakpoints than the criteria we use to select breakpoints for our responsive layouts. For our layouts, We resize the browser until the page looks bad and then BOOOOM, we need a breakpoint

The main reason why we need multiple image sources has nothing to do with where the images look bad. We want to provide multiple image sources because of performance concerns, different screen densities, etc.

So we can’t simply reuse our responsive layout breakpoints for our images.

Breakpoints are the point a which your sites content will respond to provide the user with the best possible layout to consume the information.

When you first begin to work with Responsive Design you will define your breakpoints at the exact device widths that you are looking to target. Most often these are the smart phone (usually the iPhone at 320px and 480px), the tablet (usually the iPad at 768px and 1024px) and finally anything above 1024px.

Wrong!

You're approaching this in the wrong way.

Instead of being concerned with device breakpoints the best practice is to design for your smallest viewport first. As you expand that view there will come a point at which the design looks shit terrible. This is where you add a break point.

Sass_Ampersand

The & is an extremely useful feature in Sass (and Less). It's used when nesting. It can be a nice time-saver when you know how to use it, or a bit of a time-waster when you're struggling and could have written the same code in regular CSS.

Let's see if we can really understand it.

Basic Nesting

SCSS
.parent{
  .child{}
}

CSS
.parent .child{}

You can nest as deep as you'd like, but it's a good practice to keep it only a level or two to prevent overly specific selectors (which are less useful and harder to override).

Add another class

The & comes in handy when you're nesting and you want to create a more specific selector, like an element that has *both* of two classes, like this:

SCSS
.some-class{
  &.another-class{}
}

CSS
.some-class.another-class{}

The & always refers to the parent selector when nesting. Think of the & as being removed and replaced with the parent selector.

"Ahh" moment

SCSS
.parent{
  & .child{}
}

.parent{
  .child{}
}

CSS
.parent .child{}

The example with the & isn't anything different than the example without the&. Nesting without the & is shorthand for nesting with it. We can think of the &as a mechanism that allows us to place the parent selector wherever we need it in our child selector. It allows us to nest with alterations. Let's look at some more examples.

Using the & with pseudo classes

You can write pseudo classes on a class in a much less repetitive way with the &:

SCSS
.button{
  &:visited{}
  &:hover{}
  &:active{}
}

CSS
.button:visited{}
.button:hover{}
.button:active{}

Using the & with >, + and ~

SCSS
.button{
  & > span{}
  & + span{}
  & ~ span{}
}

CSS
.button > span{}
.button + span{}
.button ~ span{}

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5 step to achieve your own personal transformation

1. Complete the past to embrace the future

One of the biggest reasons why we find it difficult to move forward in life is because we haven’t properly dealt with the things that are holding us back. Are you holding onto past hurts, past anger or fear, or past incompletes? Releasing these anchors could be the final step you need to complete your past and embrace your future. I’ve known people who have forgiven their parents and doubled their productivity and ability to achieve their goals, almost overnight. I’ve known others who have finally sat down with an accountant and got their financial numbers in order – and doubled their income in a matter of months as a result. I even know someone who spent the weekend cleaning out his garage once – and scored a new dream client the following Monday!

2. Embrace change

When you resist that change, you risk being swept away by it. But when you choose to embrace change wholeheartedly as an inevitable part of life, looking for ways to use new changes to make your life richer, easier, and more fulfilling, your life will work much better. You will experience change as an opportunity for growth and new experiences, rather than a potential source of discomfort or fear.

Take some time this holiday seasons to consider your life and decide where you neet to grow.

• What’s changing in my life that I’m currently resisting?
• Why am I resisting that change?
• What am I afraid of with respect to this change?
• What am I afraid might happen to me?
• What’s the payoff for my keeping things the way they are?
• What’s the cost I’m paying for keeping things the way they are?
• What benefits might there be in this change?
• What’s the next step I could take to cooperate with this change?
• When will I take this step?

3. Transform your inner critic into an inner coach.

Research indicates that people talk to themselves about 50,000 times a day - and that 80% of that self talk is negative.

So if you have a voice inside you that says things like, “I shouldn’t have said that… they don’t like me… I’m never going to be able to pull this off… I’m a fraud… I’m so disorganized… I’ll never be good enough…” you are certainly not alone.

The problem with all this negative self-talk is that we actually BELIEVE it. Such thoughts affect our attitude, our motivation to act, our physiology, even our biochemistry.

4. Commit to developing four new success habits a year.

Your habits determine your outcomes. Successful people don’t just drift to the top. Getting there requires focused action, personal discipline, and lots of energy every day to make things happen.

So if you want to create higher levels of success, chances are you are going to need to drop some of your current habits – such as not following through on your commitments, staying up too late, watching too much television, making sarcastic comments, eating fast food too often, smoking, spending more than you earn – and replace them with more productive ones.

For example, if your goal is to get to the gym every morning, you might develop the habit of going to bed one hour earlier every night. If you want to be more productive at work, maybe you’ll get into the habit of identifying five main tasks you want to accomplish each day – then not leave the office until they’re complete. Or if you want to improve your relationship with your parents, maybe you’ll get into the habit of calling them at the same time every week just to chat.

5. Stay motivated with the masters.

Achieving personal transformation can be challenging work – and without daily motivation, it’s all too easy to backslide.

One great way to stay on track is to seek out external motivation to keep your thoughts and attitude oriented on success. In my experience, truly successful people commit to lifelong learning and are always reading, watching, or listening to books, videos, or audiotapes that inspire them to keep moving forward.

If you spend even fifteen minutes a day listening to motivational talks, learning a valuable new skill, or discovering the success secrets of the world’s most powerful entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, or other professional titans, it will inspire you to pursue your own incredible success.

Cursor

The cursor property in CSS controls what the mouse cursor will look like when it is located over the element in which this property is set. Obviously, it only is relevant in browsers/operating systems in which there is a mouse and cursor. They are used essentially for UX - as they convey the idea of certain functionality. So try not to break that affordance =).

Codepen live

Shapes of css

Square using css

#square { width: 100px; height: 100px; background: red; }

Rectengle

#rectengle { background: red; height: 100px; width: 200px; }

Circle

#circle { background: red; border-radius: 50%; height: 100px; width: 100px; }

Triangle up

#triangle_up { width: 0;height: 0;border-left: 50px solid transparent;border-right: 50px solid transparent;border-bottom: 100px solid red; }


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::after / ::before

::after is a pseudo element which allows you to insert content onto a page from CSS (without it needing to be in the HTML). While the end result is not actually in the DOM, it appears on the page as if it is, and would essentially be like this:

div::after { content: "hi"; }

<!-- Rest of stuff inside the div -->
<div> hi </div>

Give your multiple background canvases

Transparent circle using css.

jsfiddle

Positive Thinking

No negative thought allowed.

• Reduces daily stress.
• You get a better health.
• A strong confidence.
• Live a longer life.
• Live a happier life
• You will have more friends.
• Better management of important decision.

How to apply positive thinking.

Use positive words when talking. If you constantly say “I can not” you could convince yourself that it’s true. Replace negative words with positive ones. Tell yourself that you do everything possible to have a happy relationship, tell yourself that you do everything possible to have a brilliant career, tell yourself that you do everything possible to keep you in shape.


Remove all the feelings that are not positive! Do not let negative thoughts and feelings conquer when you have a bad mood. Even if for a few hours a day, remove negativity and focus on the positive things in your life.


Use words that evoke strength and success. Fill your thoughts with words that make you feel strong, happy, having control over your life. Make an effort to focus on these words rather than the ones that suggest failure or incompetence.


Practice positive affirmations. One of the most common exercises for a positive thinking is positive affirmation. What does that mean? Start repeating a positive phrase like “I deserve to be happy” or “I deserve to be loved.” Believing that these statements are true and repeating them always will impose a more positive opinion about your life.

12 little css facts

1. The border-radius property can use "Slash" syntax. 
2. border-radius: 35px 25px 30px 20px / 35px 25px 15px 30px;
3. The font-weight property accepts relative keywords.
4. There is an outline-offset property.
5. There is an table-layout property.
6. The vertical-align property works differently on table cell vs. Other elements.
7. The ::first-letter pseudo-element is smarter than you think.
8. You can use invalid characters as delimiters in your HTML class lists.
9. Animation shorthand can break because of the animation's name.
10. You can select ranges of elements.
11. Pseudo-element can be applied ot some void elements.
12. Some attribute values are case insensitive in selectors.

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Corner shaping mixin using stacked gradients

<nav>

  <a href="#" class="btn corner-1">Corner Scoop</a>
  <a href="#" class="btn corner-2">Corner Bevel</a>
  <a href="#" class="btn corner-3">Corner Notch</a>
</nav>




@mixin corners($shape, $size, $color) {

  $n1: $size+px;
  $n2: ($size)*2+px;
  $n3: $size+1+px;
  $pn: 0%;
  @if ($size <= 10) { $pn: 6%; }
  @elseif ($size <= 15) { $pn: 5%; }
  @elseif ($size <= 20) { $pn: 4%; }
  @elseif ($size <= 40) { $pn: 3%; }
  @elseif ($size <= 50) { $pn: 2%; }
  @elseif ($size <= 60) { $pn: 1%; }
  $pd-scoop: 64%+$pn;
  
  @if ($shape == "bevel") {
    background: $color;
    background:
          linear-gradient(to right , $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat top center,
          linear-gradient(to bottom, $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat center left,
          linear-gradient(135deg,  transparent 49%, $color 50% ) no-repeat top left,
          linear-gradient(-135deg, transparent 47%, $color 48% ) no-repeat top right,
          linear-gradient(45deg,   transparent 47%, $color 48% ) no-repeat bottom left,
          linear-gradient(-45deg,  transparent 46%, $color 47% ) no-repeat bottom right;
    background-size: calc(100% - #{$n2}) 100%, 100% calc(100% - #{$n2}), $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3;
  }
  
  @if ($shape == "scoop") {
    $t-t: t t; // compiler bug hack
    $t-b: t b; // compiler bug hack
    background: $color;
    background:
          linear-gradient(to right , $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat top center,
          linear-gradient(to bottom, $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat center left,
          radial-gradient(a+$t-t+op left,     transparent 64%, $color $pd-scoop ) no-repeat top left,
          radial-gradient(a+$t-t+op right,    transparent 64%, $color $pd-scoop ) no-repeat top right,
          radial-gradient(a+$t-b+ottom left,  transparent 64%, $color $pd-scoop ) no-repeat bottom left,
          radial-gradient(a+$t-b+ottom right, transparent 64%, $color $pd-scoop ) no-repeat bottom right;
    background-size: calc(100% - #{$n2}) 100%, 100% calc(100% - #{$n2}), $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3, $n3 $n3;
  }
  
  @if ($shape == "notch") {
    background: $color;
    background:
          linear-gradient(to right , $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat top center,
          linear-gradient(to bottom, $color 0, $color 100%) no-repeat center left;
    background-size: calc(100% - #{$n2}) 100%, 100% calc(100% - #{$n2});
  }
  
}

.corner-1 {
  transition: all 0.3s;
  @include corners('scoop', 10, #770000);
  &:after {
    transition: all 0.3s;
    @include corners('scoop', 10, #330000);
  }
  &:hover {
    @include corners('scoop', 27, #990000);
    &:after { @include corners('scoop', 27, #330000); }
  }
}

.corner-2 {
  transition: all 0.3s;
  @include corners('bevel', 16, #007700);
  &:after {
    transition: all 0.3s;
    @include corners('bevel', 16, #003300);
  }
  &:hover {
    @include corners('bevel', 40, #009900);
    &:after { @include corners('bevel', 40, #003300); }
  }
}

.corner-3 {
  transition: all 0.3s;
  @include corners('notch', 5, #0055cc);
  &:after {
    transition: all 0.3s;
    @include corners('notch', 5, #002266);
  }
  &:hover {
    @include corners('notch', 15, #0077ee);
    &:after { @include corners('notch', 15, #002266); }
  }
}

.btn {
  display: inline-block;
  padding: 20px 30px 16px;
  font-size: 16px;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  letter-spacing: -0.05em;
  color: #fff;
  text-decoration: none;
  position: relative;
  &:after {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    top: 4px;
    left: 0;
    z-index: -1;
  }
}

nav {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 50%;
  margin-top: -40px;
  width: 100%;
  text-align: center;
}

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Selector level 4

:read-only and :read-write

These selectors are pretty straightforward. Any element that’s editable by the user is in the “read-write” state. Otherwise, the element is in the “read-only” state.

jsfiddle

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Why I Drink Coffee (Almost) Every Morning

With a busy work schedule, a longer than average commute and an active after-work life, I, like many of you, am consistently running on fumes. I wake up each morning before sunrise and before my feet even touch the ground, I’m already mentally compiling lists of all the things I need to tackle for the day just to keep up with my ever growing “to-dos”. Whether it’s a week day or a weekend, the pace doesn’t seem to slow. And to be fair, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I remained idle and I take pride in all of the things I’m able to accomplish by keeping myself always on the move.

While on the GO train the other morning though (that’s the commuter train I take into the city for work each day) I realized something I hadn’t thought about before. While sipping in my first mouthful of coffee for the day I realized that I drink coffee every morning religiously not because of the caffeine jolt it gives me (I’m unfortunately passed this point of caffeine having much effect on me physiologically), but because of what it represents in my day. My coffee time represents 30 minutes I give myself for undistracted, personal reflection. And I also realized that this 30 minutes is hand-down one of the things I look forward to each morning – one of my most cherished gifts if you will.

Now it may sound like if I only grant myself these 30 minutes for deep reflection that I may spend these 30 minutes toiling over complex work or personal problems that need resolve; and yes sometimes I do if that’s what is consuming my thoughts. But most days I guiltlessly just spend the 30 minutes thinking about things that inspire me, things I’ve read recently in an article but didn’t yet have a chance to form an opinion on, places I’d like to travel to someday, or my ultimate favorite, deeply concentrating on the people and the environment around me so as to try and notice all the sights, sounds and smells associated with where I am. It feels great to ground myself each morning in the “now”, and without concerted effort spending time thinking about things that come and go from my mind without forcing any particular thought over another.

It feels kind of weird to reflect on reflecting, but if you’re like me with a go-go-go schedule, I think it’s important to a) take the time to give back to yourself personally and b) to notice when you do this so you can feel how great you feel and then consciously make a commitment to continue on with this habit no matter what curve balls get thrown your way. So with my new found wisdom I want to challenge every reader. I dare you to give in to yourself and take a step back from your hectic schedule every single day by doing some little thing that brings you happiness. It may not be a 30 minute coffee-assisted personal reflection period like I have chosen, it may instead be a walk with your dog or a shower with your music blaring so loud it blocks out your spouse. But make that habit and take the time every day to give back to yourself. And when you’re doing whatever it is that recharges your battery or fills your cup (sorry but I love corny puns), take a second to notice the gift you’ve just given yourself, that is before realizing you’re late yet again to drop off your kids for school.

How Far Can the Human Eye See?

The Earth's surface curves out of sight at a distance of 3.1 miles, or 5 kilometers. But our visual acuity extends far beyond the horizon. If Earth were flat, or if you were standing atop a mountain surveying a larger-than-usual patch of the planet, you could perceive bright lights hundreds of miles distant. On a dark night, you could even see a candle flame flickering up to 30 mi. (48 km) away.

How far the human eye can see depends on how many particles of light, or photons, a distant object emits. The farthest object visible with the naked eye is the Andromeda galaxy, located an astonishing 2.6 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy's 1 trillion stars collectively emit enough light for a few thousand photons to hit each square centimeter of Earth every second; on a dark night, that's plenty to excite our retinas.


Back in 1941, the vision scientist Selig Hecht and his colleagues at Columbia University made what is still considered a reliable measurement of the "absolute threshold" of vision —  the minimum number of photons that must strike our retinas in order to elicit an awareness of visual perception. The experiment probed the threshold under ideal conditions: study participants' eyes were given time to adapt to total darkness, the flash of light acting as a stimulus had a (blue-green) wavelength of 510 nanometers, to which our eyes are most sensitive, and this light was aimed at the periphery of the retina, which is richest in light-detecting rod cells.

Pseudo-classes

A CSS pseudo-class is a keyword added to selectors that specifies a special state of the element to be selected. For example :hover will apply a style when the user hovers over the element specified by the selector.

Pseudo-classes, together with pseudo-elements, let you apply a style to an element not only in relation to the content of the document tree, but also in relation to external factors like the history of the navigator (:visited, for example), the status of its content (like :checked on some form elements), or the position of the mouse (like :hover which lets you know if the mouse is over an element or not).

selector:pseudo-class {
  property: value;

} 

Pseudo-classes

:active
:checked
:default
:dir()
:disabled
:empty
:enabled
:first
:first-child
:first-of-type
:fullscreen
:focus
:hover
:indeterminate
:in-range
:invalid
:lang()
:last-child
:last-of-type
:left
:link
:not()
:nth-child()
:nth-last-child()
:nth-last-of-type()
:nth-of-type()
:only-child
:only-of-type
:optional
:out-of-range
:read-only
:read-write
:required
:right
:root
:scope
:target
:valid

:visited

Ten ways to build a brand for your small business

Branding is just as important for small businesses as it is for big names. Indeed, many corporate brands try to look more like small firms in order to appeal to consumers that prefer to support independent brands. Dan Einzg of agency Mystery explains how to develop your own brand identity

1.   Start by defining your brand.

Review the product or service your business offers, pinpoint the space in the market it occupies and research the emotive and rational needs and concerns of your customers. Your brand character should promote your business, connect with your customer base and differentiate you in the market.

2.   When building your brand, think of it as a person.

Every one of us is an individual whose character is made up of beliefs, values and purposes that define who we are and who we connect with. Our personality determines how we behave in different situations, how we dress and what we say. Of course for people it's intuitive and it's rare that you even consider what your own character is, but when you're building a brand it's vital to have that understanding.

3.   Consider what is driving your business.

What does it believe in, what is its purpose and who are its brand heroes. These things can help establish your emotive brand positioning and inform the identity and character for brand communications.

4.   Aim to build long-term relationships with your customers.

Don’t dress up your offering and raise expectations that result in broken promises, create trust with honest branding — be clear who your company is and be true to the values that drive it every day.

5.   Speak to your customers with a consistent tone of voice.

It will help reinforce the business’ character and clarify its offering so customers are aware exactly what to expect from the product or service.

6.   Don't repeat the same message in the same way over and over again. 

Alternatively, aim to make your key messages work together to build a coherent identity. 

7.   Don’t try to mimic the look of chains or big brands.

Try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic, that aligns with how feel about themselves.

8.   Be innovative, bold and daring – stand for something you believe in.

Big brands are encumbered by large layers of bureaucracy, preventing them from being flexible and reacting to the ever-changing needs of their customers. Those layers of decision-makers can make it hard for them to be daring with their branding.

9.   Always consider your branding when communicating with customers.

Don't lose your pride or dilute your brand positioning with indiscriminate discounting. Try offering more, rather than slashing prices. Promotions are an opportunity to reinforce your brand mission.

10.  The old way of stamping your logo on everything won't cut it.

The future of branding is fluid and engaging — respect your customers' intelligence by not giving everything away up front. Generate some intrigue and allow them to unearth more about your brand for themselves. This is the way to foster ambassadors who revel in telling other people what they have discovered.