‘Ugh! I can’t believe it’s gone off already. I only got it 6 months ago and now it smells like compost.’

I was lamenting the demise of my favourite hand cream (the posh one that relieves poor chapped hands from too much washing/sanitiser/holding icy G&Ts in pub gardens.)

My husband peered over his newspaper at me. ‘I got that for you two years ago.’

No way! Surely it was last year. But…OMG yes.

It really was 2019.

And seems to be happening all the time.

I’m all out of whack.

Anything I thought was last year was in fact 2019.

Our car’s a year older than I told the garage.

Our cats are a year older than I told the vet.

And I’m a year older than I ‘fessed up to a friend recently (it’s all a moot point after 40 though, right?).

It’s like we’ve lost a year.

The coronayear.

A year of sitting at home without the usual birthday celebrations, holidays and experiences to punctuate our time like timestamps.

Without these, 2020 has kind of disappeared into the ether – it’s still there but not always obvious.

Is it the same for you?

If so, you might have noticed that it’s been longer than you think since you did certain things…

The LinkedIn profile you updated ‘not that long ago’? I’ll bet it’s been at least 18 months.

The people in your network you ‘reached out to recently’? I reckon some of them haven’t heard from you since before lockdown 1.

Those ‘fresh’ testimonials you sourced? That was 2017. Yikes.

Life moves pretty fast these days. And stuff gets out of date far faster than we realise.

It starts looking tired. A little unkempt. A bit ‘lockdown haircut’ when it’s time to get to the hairdressers.

It reeks of ‘Eau de neglect’.

So maybe it’s time to give your marketing and personal brand some good old TLC.

My LinkedIn profile is on my to-do list – what’s on yours?