Most people realize that being authentic is positive and powerful, but most people also don’t understand HOW to do it. Here’s a simple rule to help you stay authentic – be true to your values.
An easy way to figure out what your values are is to spend 5 minutes and make a list of everything that’s important to you – love, friendships, financial freedom, playing with your children, etc. And then rank them in order of importance by placing the number ‘1’ next to the most important value, and continuing to number them all the way to the least important value.
For example, a list of values may look like this:
(1) Spirituality
(2) Family
(3) Happiness
(4) Significance
(5) Emotional Freedom
…
(18) Having a Clean House
(19) Playing Golf
(20) Dancing
Once you have this list of values, use it as a guide for all of your decisions about how to spend your time, energy and money. Whenever possible, create the time and space for your highest values to be met.
And remember that every time you say ‘yes’ to anything, you’re saying ‘no’ to something else. So always make sure you keep your highest values in mind when planning your life.
The most common thing I see people do, and something I did myself for most of my life, is make their decisions based on their need for external approval. In the process, they tend to not take care of themselves or their emotions. This is a big mistake if you want to live a fulfilled life because chasing external approval is a never-ending, and impossible, game to win.
Instead, simply focus on being fulfilled, which means intentionally living in alignment with your values. The more you do that, the happier you’ll be. The happier you are, the more peace of mind you’ll have, the easier your decisions will become, and ultimately you’ll be living a much more authentic life.
Here’s to your values…
SS
