Your values are foundational in your life. They affect everything.
Your values determine whether you succeed or not.
Your values guide and shape what’s important to you. Even when you’re not aware of them.
You’ve probably identified your values at some stage or other in your life. Maybe even more than once. What’s important to know is that identifying your values and then forgetting about them will not bring you success. Your values are not something you can tick off as being done and forget about. They’re not something you can put in a box and ignore.
Your values determine how you show up. As with all the choices you make in life, you can choose proactively to show up aligned with your values or choose by default to just show up.
Your values influence the choices you make. They’re a guiding light for you.
Your values are essentially what you stand for. The importance you place on them has a direct impact on your success.
Your values stem from your beliefs and convictions which then guide and direct your behaviors.
Values are the essence of who you are, the foundation of your unique self-expression. When you attempt something that isn’t aligned with your values, you’re not likely to succeed at it.
Your values help you act with integrity and when your priorities are aligned with your values, you are well on your way to success.
Whatever values you hold will help paint the picture of the life you want to have. When you’re not living in alignment with your values a disconnect between who you are on the inside and the life you’re living on the outside is created. That disconnect can zap your energy and derail your success.
For your values to be meaningful for you, it’s a great idea to turn them into statements or actions to give them more meaning. When you choose not to do this they can just seem like labels you attached to yourself. Power-tip: this exercise is frequently a game-changer for my clients.
Let’s say you identify compassion as one of your values. You could write that as “give compassion” or “I give compassion to me and others”. Then you’ve turned a label into a claim or an action statement.
Once you’ve turned your values into claim or action statements you can use these as a filter to determine whether something is aligned for you or not. When you run everything through that filter you’ve turbo-charged your success and freedom.
Personally, values are incredibly important to me. In case you’re curious, here are mine:
I stand for:
- Kindness and treating others as you want to be treated
- Courage to move forward resolutely and bravely in accordance with your own beliefs
- Creativity to follow your own path, not other’s direction
- Freedom to choose whatever your heart desires
From here I can ask questions to check I’m in alignment. These questions can include: “Am I being kind? Is this how I’d like others to treat me? Am I progressing according to my beliefs? Is this helping me follow my own path? Is this what my heart desires?”
If you’re unsure of your values, there’s a worksheet available for you to use to identify or clarify them among the download bonuses for my book “Decide – choose your own path” that you’re welcome to pop on over and grab here.
