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4 Things You Need To Know About Your Core Values

By on March 27, 2013 in Burning Questions, Health & Wellness, Life Juice, Life Truths, Mind Matters, Mini-Missions, Productivity & Organization, Relationships, Responsible Living, Work-Life Success

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“Core Values” is a term that’s thrown around a lot, especially in a business setting, but we have personal core values as well. It sounds more intimidating than it is. We all have them, whether we know it or not.

Our personal core values are our personal belief system, the way we filter our world, information, experiences, feelings, thoughts, etc. The way we walk, talk, believe and act, everything that happens in our lives.

Personal core values are developed mostly through life experiences and often other people install them in us knowingly or unknowingly – through either teaching, example or our rejection of them.

My personal core values are the filter of who I am.

Honesty, integrity, family, work ethic, money, health, fun, etc. Whatever they may be…every decision is guided by them. Unfortunately…or maybe fortunately…depending on your viewpoint…this is a major cause of conflict with other people who don’t share our values. It just is. Not bad, or good, just is.

Mini-Mission: 4 Things You Need To Know About Your Core Values

What are they? A Google search can help you identify and label…

How do you actively live them? Or do you actively ignore them?

Are your values congruent? Conflicting values make it impossible to thrive and grow.

Are they always open to change? We grow and change as we gather more life experience and so may our core values.

Something to think about

Your core values are who you are right now, not who you want to be. (Feel free to tweet that :) People tend to make lists of values, traits of the person they want to be…but if you aren’t actively living by them in the here and now, then they aren’t actually your values…now are they?

That thought was quite an eye opener for me…You mean

Your mission this week…Think about your personal core values…They are what drives your life, so they’re worth a bit of consideration. Consider the four questions above to help you get a better understanding.

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Does Setting Goals Affect Our Happiness?

By on March 25, 2013 in Life Juice, Mind Matters, Productivity & Organization, Work-Life Success

08b8364e31Does our culture place too much emphasis on goal setting?

Michael Neill broached this subject in a recent newsletter and that got me thinking. He suggests that while we tend to set goals based on what we THINK will make us “happier” or improve the quality of our lives at some point in the future, we actually may be doing ourselves more harm than good.

We are inherently poor at predicting what our experience of achieving those goals will be beyond the expected initial rush of “accomplishment adrenaline.” What we thought would make us happy often doesn’t and even while we are in the midst of working toward the goal we become unhappier because we measure where we are now against the final goal and often find ourselves lacking.

It doesn’t mean we should set any goals for ourselves. But instead of setting so many goals with our eye focused on the future, we might be better served by staying open to opportunities or possibilities in the present and placing our focus on being creatively engaged on what we can do or are doing right now. The more engaged we are, the better results we tend to get and consequently the greater progress we tend to make.

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The 3 E’s – What Do They Mean? Why You Should Care?

By on March 20, 2013 in Mind Matters, Work-Life Success

To my way of thinking there are three aspects or necessary components to growing in life, work, fulfillment, success, balance, relationships, anything really.

Explore, Expand, Evolve

This sort of sums up my philosophy of both my work and my life.

You really need all three to be your most effective, to live your best life, to have your most successful career. They work together, building on one another and circling back and forth to form an intricate web which is the foundation for all growth, in business and in life.

But what do these words mean? How do they apply to you? To your business? To your life?

Here’s the boiled-down Cliff Notes version of my understanding and my practice.

Explore = Assess

  • Look at the situation, the problem, the reality, the goal
  • Learn more about options, choices, motivations, thought and behavior patterns
  • Generate ideas, contemplate possible solutions
  • Who am I? As a person, as a professional?
  • What am I doing? Or not doing?
  • What do I want to accomplish?
  • What is missing? Or what is not working?

Expand = Move forward

  • Be more productive
  • Formulate a plan
  • Take action
  • What do I need to do to get from A to B, or A to F?
  • Where can I get help?
  • How can I best use my time?

Evolve = Change

  • What do I need to change?
  • What isn’t working?
  • Where am I stuck?
  • Do I need to shift my focus?
  • How do I need to revise my plans and strategies?
  • Do I need to modify my behaviors?
  • Are there patterns or habits that need to change?
Your Mini-Mission for this week: How can you apply the 3E’s to your life or business?

Leave a comment or share on our Facebook page.

Just joining us… Find all of the Mini-Missions here…

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Mini-Mission: Take Up One Idea

By on January 28, 2013 in Life Juice, Mini-Missions, Work-Life Success

 

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“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life-think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda

I confess, I have no idea who Swami Vivekananda is or was…and it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that he or she, was apparently brilliant, or at least had a momentary flash of brilliance.

“Take up one idea…and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” Wow. I’m still digesting that…what a life changer that mind shift could be…

What would our lives, our careers be like if we placed our focus on one idea instead of the fragmented approach that we generally take? How would that affect our level and timetable for success?

Perhaps we’re reluctant to put all of our eggs in one basket so to speak or we’re hedging our bets, or maybe we’re not sure what that one idea is. But think about it – how much more progress we could make if our energy and focus were continually more targeted, rather than distributed among many endeavors.

So, this week’s Mini-Mission: Take up one idea

What is your one idea? If you don’t know yet…then that is your first step.

Having trouble choosing between ideas? Which one has been around, hanging out in your mind the longest? Which one makes your heart race, elicits fear or trepidation? Any strong emotion is an indicator of importance.

Got your “one idea?” Where does it stand? How committed are you to it? Have you done anything to pursue it? What’s the status? What’s today’s reality?

Now, what are you going to do about it? You don’t have to dive in, toss your career aside and turn your life upside down. For now, just knowing what that idea, focus, goal, purpose is and moving it into the front of your mind and making it the center of your focus is enough.

Something to think about… I’m curious to know what ideas you uncover, and what you’re going to do about it…  Comment or post on our Facebook page!

(Just joining us… Find all of the Mini-Missions here…)

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Why We Need To Change the Way We Think About Our Decisions…With a Little Help from Steve Jobs

By on January 25, 2013 in Mind Matters, Work-Life Success

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about stress, the role it plays in our lives, and where comes from. Why am I so stressed? Why are you so stressed?

A lot of it has to do with decisions, our anxiety over making the wrong decision, messing up, looking foolish, or feeling inadequate. When you consider the number of decisions we face each and every day, choices both big and small, it’s no wonder we’re so stressed.

I confess to being an agonizer, from what to wear, which appliance to buy, how to respond to a request from a friend, to big things like the direction of my career, which projects to take on, planning for my family’s financial future, and important healthcare decisions.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, once said that perhaps the most important lesson he learned from his battle with cancer was perspective:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life because almost everything-all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure-all these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

I wonder if perhaps this nugget of wisdom has been lost among the reams of game changing, business lessons and insights that he may have offered to the world. But I would argue, that this one statement, this one lesson is far more important than any business strategy or technology he developed.

A sense of perspective affects everything about the way we live, the way we approach our businesses or our careers, the way we treat people, maybe more importantly the way we treat ourselves, especially the way we look to our future and the decisions we make as we go about our everyday lives.

If we are eventually able to see more clearly that some things in life are less important than we thought, we might find it easier to let go of our over-caring about them. And in so doing we are better able to let go of our angst over making mistakes, our propensity for indecision, and our preoccupation with expectations, both internal and external.

By reminding ourselves that almost everything is inconsequential in the face of death…and that death is alas inevitable, perhaps we can let go of a bit of our anxiety…and hopefully a good deal of our stress as well.

What decisions do you need to make right now?

When you gain a bit of perspective, Steve Jobs style, does it affect your decision? Or your stress surrounding that choice? 

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