About thirty days ago, we asked you to visualize the life you want. Specifically, we asked you to remove the two constraints – time and money – and answer this question:
If neither time nor money was an issue,
how would you spend your time and money?
Mary-Lynn said that, as a long-time broadcaster, her dream is to develop her own content that helps people. She’s doing that with Bigg Success. George says his dream is to travel more, especially spending more time on the beach.
Dreaming is great, but we all have responsibilities. Money is limited. Time even more so. How does it help to dream without considering that fact?
Understand that this is a process. We’ll bring the two constraints back in … but not just yet. First, find your passions by dreaming about the life you want. But you won’t have peace of mind if you’re not living your values.
And, if you remember, we defined success as peace of mind. You’ll never feel successful without it. So, now we want to define our core values.
What’s most important to you? You’ll find your core values at the point where your passions and your beliefs intersect. They’re the combination of what you want and what you believe (i.e. your morals).
Everyone lives according to a set of values. Sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. We have all sorts of values … our own, things our parents taught us, influences of our society …
The question is NOT, “Are you living by a set of values?”
The question is, “Are you living by YOUR core values?”
Many people default to a subconscious set of mostly external values. Defining your core values should be extremely personal. What is most important to YOU? If you don’t live your life in line with your answer to that question, you’ll never achieve peace of mind. You’ll experience frustration, stress, burnout … all things diametrically opposed to peace of mind!
If you’re like a lot of people, you may say that your core values interfere with pursuing your passions. For example, supporting your family may be an overriding value of yours. You’re not happy but you have to do what you have to do, right?
Keep in mind that seeing the big picture – aligning your core values with your passions – energizes you. You may come to see your current situation as a stepping stone to the future of which you dream. Doesn’t that change how you look at things as they are now?
We’ll revisit this topic next time. Between now and then, think about what’s most important to you, given your passions and beliefs. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about two techniques that will help you discover your core values so you can live your dream life with purpose.
Our quote today is by Steven Covey.
“Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and your
values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.”
So values your values and your vision … and live your life with purpose, on purpose.
Next time, we’ll continue on this track. You’ll get two techniques to discover your core values so you can live your dream life with purpose. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
John Wooden, UCLA’s great coach/teacher/author, defined success this way:
You’ve probably read it, but if you haven’t you should. Even if you have, it deserves another look. We think it’s the foundation of your success studies. Well, second to Bigg Success, of course!
