Bold Declarations.

Today’s Marketing Cookie is about the power of making a declaration.

Did you have a “when I grow up” vision as a kid? What did you say about yourself 7 years ago? How about 14 or even 24 years ago? Did you have a vision back then for what your career or life’s journey would look like by now?

Today is Independence Day. Beyond the fireworks, barbecues, and parades, this day commemorates when our forefathers declared our independence from the British Crown and made it known to the king that we desired to govern ourselves and create a new nation built on liberty and justice for all.

There was fear and trepidation among the 56 signers because what they declared on July 4, 1776, was an act of treason, punishable by death. There was no turning back.

Once it was signed, copies of the Declaration were printed and given to the military. Couriers were dispatched to deliver printed copies to each of the colonies. Newspapers reprinted it in their issues, and public readings were organized in towns and cities across the colonies. Copies were also sent to foreign governments to inform them of the colonies' new status.

Making a Declaration of Independence was essentially a declaration of war, and seven years of war is exactly what they got. After the final peace treaty with Great Britain in September 1783, it took another six years and ten months to ratify the Constitution and elect our first President. It took another eleven years before the White House was built and the capital was moved to Washington, D.C. Everything they built resulted from something they declared over 24 years prior.

There isn’t a national holiday for the day the British army surrendered in the revolution. There’s no parade or fireworks to mark the day our constitution was ratified or even when George Washington became our first president. It is the Declaration itself that we celebrate.

When you declare something for or about yourself, you make it real. When you write it down, sign it, and commit to it, you create momentum for your vision, and it creates a point where there’s no turning back. When you say it out loud, post it for others to see, and share your “new status” with the world, it becomes part of your brand. Your commitment to your declaration transforms your aspiration into reality just as today’s fortune says, “The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.”