What are your values? How do they help you? Values are as simple as things you treasure or with great worth. These are basically your principles in life, somewhat a standard you rely on keeping you in the direction of success. Values help you reflect and focus on your goals.
From simple decision making to tough choices, values exist for the sole purpose of guiding you towards living the dream. Values are here for a reason yet a lot of factors and conflicts may result in inevitable change. As you grow, your definition of success changes so as your values.
Now, do you have a framework to make decisions based on what’s actually really truly important to you? Are you just going through life as most people do?
People have a lot in common when you ask about their values in life, some are:
- Spending time with family
- Having a big impact to other people
- Making a difference to people’s lives
- Making a lot of money
- Retire my spouse
- Pay off my parent’s house
- Travel and fun vacations
People’s values are based on their personal experiences and beliefs. Good or bad relationships, fruitful or situations with conflict, and the society they live in will ultimately contribute to knowing their priorities.
Value Check: Are they right or wrong?
We could share each of our values and wonder about their similarities and differences. However, I suppose we could sit here and argue about who’s right or wrong but basically, it’s like that old saying; “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
You can’t tell someone what should be beautiful to them just because you think your point of view is the only thing that matters, the same way that you can’t tell them what should or shouldn’t be important to them.
People will value what they want to value, may it be based on their practical needs, feelings, job, belief, etc. Each individual is entitled to what they want to include and prioritize in their life.
You have to fit into their shoes for you to be able to address the things that are really valuable. So, it boils down to your personal preferences.
Adding Value to Your Life
How do you determine what’s really important to you? How do your values add up in chasing your dream life?
Here are fundamental factors that will help you in the process of finding your values and building your life around it:
- What you think
- What you decide
- What you determine
Now, I’ve got an easy three-step process to help you identify exactly the things that matter to you most and how you can form your life around these things.
1. Understand what are your values
As human beings, we have to make that decision for ourselves. Understanding our values requires effort. It takes time to get to know ourselves, deep in our core. Only then, we’ll know what and who we really care about.
If you don’t know what are these yet, you can use a book or online resources to further learn the list of values. There is readily-available information on online sites like YouTube and Google. Most of them are common values we already know like:
- Fun
- Freedom
- Security
- Safety
- Simplicity
- Independence
- Creativity
- Strength
- Timeliness
- Leadership
- Love
These are some examples of values you could already have. Spend some time knowing and understanding these values to find out what’s yours.
For the most part, you’ve got to make a determination, a process to check and confirm your values. Writing it down is an effective way to do this.
I’ve done this exercise many times at seminars. Maybe, you have, too.
Given the list of these values you’ve gathered, circle the ones that are most important to you.
Maybe, you now have your Top 20 or more. It really depends on you. Although, you don’t want to have a hundred values encircled because it’ll be difficult for you to decide afterward.
When you write down the things that matter to you, you’ll eventually get a sense of control of your emotions and actions. You’ll notice that you can easily ignore all the things that involves the destruction of your happiness, simply because you now know what truly matters to you.
2. Contemplate on Your Values and Growth in Life
Now that you have your Top 10 or 20, I want you to look at your day then a week, followed by your month and you can even look at your life.
Ask yourself:
“Am I making my life around my values or am I just letting things happen without making strong and firm decisions about what I really want?”
This will definitely spark something in your mind and hopefully, help you realize and decide.
When you’ve determined your list of values, the next thing to do is to take good feels about it.
Honesty is the key to this step. You have to be true to your identity and reflect on the values you have and the adventure you had with them.
I remember years ago, I was in a business where I was just going after the money. The most important thing to me before was making a lot of money.
Do you know what I realized? I wasn’t happy. I didn’t enjoy it because I realized for me, money doesn’t act as a motivator.
“Money is the thing that I get when I do what I want to do with the people that I want to do it with.”
See how I was going after the money? But, it was very unsatisfying. I was lost. Do you know what’s so funny? I really didn’t make a lot of money.
Anyway, it didn’t even work out even for the money and so, maybe you’ve seen that you haven’t.
What I’m saying to you is now that I have scheduled and prioritized my life around my values, I find that:
- I’m a lot happier
- I’m a lot more relaxed.
- I’m a lot more fun to be around.
- I have a lot less stress.
- I’m making good money.
I mean I am making the money that I want and I’m still working. I’m always trying to grow, trying to make more money. But what I like to see now is the money that comes into my life and my business is a result of me making a difference to other people. That makes me happy!
Chasing the money never made me happy but chasing impact, having that impact, and making a difference in other people’s lives is what makes me happy.
And, of course, the money happens as a result.
3. Form Your Life and Your Daily Routine Around Your Values
If your value, for example, is making a difference then make sure you have created the systems and put the systems in place so that you’re making a difference and you’re making money, too.
Hey, you’ve got to have money to live and have a good life. Your prioritizing habit and commitment to your values will bring you success.
If you want some help with this, just go to noahinnercircle.com. We can jump on the phone and have a 30-minute call, a breakthrough session as we call it. It is a strategy session with us. Get on the phone and either I or one of my coaches will show you how to schedule your life around your values.
Because if you don’t put the big rocks in first, then the big rocks never get put in.
The big rocks represent your values. You’ve got to stay and make sure that those stay first.
As Stephen Covey talked about; “Put first things first and begin with the end in mind.”
That’s what this life is about!
Most Valuable Commodity
We only have one life, friends. You only have one life and time is the most valuable commodity.
All of Warren Buffett’s billions can’t buy one minute of yesterday.
Don’t wait until someday. We always say that someday we’ll get around to it. There’s no boat to Sunday aisle. You’ve got to make it happen now.
Is it going to be painful? Maybe, sometimes…
There’s an old saying, “When God closes one door, another door opens. but those hallways can be a b*tch.”
So, make sure that you don’t do it alone. Be certain that you get help from me or somebody else.
Whatever it is that you do, make sure you have the right plan, you get the right tools, and you get the right support so that you can live your values, live your dream life and have the freedom lifestyle that we all dream of.