Back in the day it was easy to keep your professional life separate from your private life. However, there have been so many changes in the ways that we interact until it seems our personal and professional lives intersect at many turns. 

For example, going out used be a time when you could let down your hair and have a good time. But, as we have worked to grow our professional network, many social events are also networking events. What does that mean? Letting your hair down and having a good time might not always be a good idea. Although some people will find you taking tequila shots on every hour to be highly amusing, their perception of your professional person might lose a few cool points on Monday morning or when it comes time to choose between doing business with you and someone that they don’t know as well. So, you may want to consider saving the real party for intimate gatherings with your real friends.

The expansion of social media has also blurred the lines between the personal and professional person. Almost everyone has a FaceBook page and some people are trying to use their profiles to conduct business and monitor their posts to reflect such. However, there are others that use their FaceBook to air all of their business. This is not a bad thing when you have limited number of friends but when you have hundreds of friends, it is not easy to control your message and your brand. Your message, in this case, is your reputation and your brand is your personal image. Yes, it may all be very entertaining but with hundreds of eyes on you, what are you really saying about yourself? What happens if you want to do business with someone and you are extremely qualified but all they can think about is how volatile your personal life is based on your constant rants about your relationship woes? 

In the future, think about when your personal life maybe intersecting with your professional life and try to act accordingly. You never who is watching and how it will affect you in the future.