Think about a time when everything was just awesome. You were happy and fulfilled. Ahh! Those are what I call “Principled Moments,” because if you examine them closely, you’ll likely find that one (or more) of your Principles — what you stand for — was being honored.
Principled Moments can happen at home, at work, when you’re volunteering, when you’re watching your kid play sports. In fact, you can learn more about yourself by thinking about how these moments show up in different facets of your life.
What do Principled Moments look like?
One of my client’s Principled Moment was her wedding.
Another client told me about a Principled Moment watching a kid that he’d mentored getting a tough win in a sporting match.
Someone else’s Principled Moment was crossing the finish line in a half-marathon after months of training and preparation.
Yet another client spoke of a presentation at work they knocked out of the park.
What do your Principled Moments look like…at work, and away from work?
Understanding Your Principled Moments
Picture your Principled Moments like photographs. They’re freeze frames that can help you remember those important times.
For example, my client whose Principled Moment was her wedding talked about honoring her relationship with her husband, her family being gathered in one place, and about how her thoughtful planning resulted in exactly the experience she had hoped to give to the people she loved best. Her principles of Partnership, Family-Orientation, and Service were all honored on her special day.
Think back to your principled moments . . . what was going on for you? Why were these particular moments so special? What principles were you honoring? How do they represent what you stand for?
Using Your Principled Moments
Being aware of what lights you up can help you focus on those things and get more of them. When you compare Principled Moments from different aspects of your life, the common threads can be easier to pick out.
My client whose Principled Moment was watching the sporting match realized that, at work, he really loved seeing people on his team do well in high-stakes situations. He realized that both his work and non-work moments had a common theme: preparing others to take calculated risks to achieve higher performance. His common principles were Education, Risk-Taking, and Achievement.
Compare your Principled Moments to each other. What do they have in common? Is it Family? Or Fairness? Or Fun? Or Functionality? (Or non-F-words?) Are there different things that combine uniquely to make your Principled Moments truly meaningful?
Once you identify the things your moments have in common, you can seek out opportunities to use those principles. Whether it’s at work or away from work, the more you can do in the context of your principles, the more fulfilled you’ll be.
How do your principles show up in your Principled Moments? Write us in the space below!
Originally published at katedixon.org