Oh, hi there.
Today I want to talk about your VALUES and REALNESS.
But…wait! This isn’t just another cliched post about how you should figure out the core values of your brand/business/self, inject them into everything you do, and then have no problems because everything is so ‘coherent’.
Let’s be blunt: saying that we should “DEFINE OUR VALUES” these days is like saying that the sky is blue – we all know that our values are important and that we should arrange our lives and businesses around them to improve our quality of life and to be more resonant (whatever the f that means).
Despite this common wisdom, people still like to fling it out into the void like they just rubbed two sticks together and discovered fire…
Okay, so that’s that out of the way…
Your values ARE really important and injecting them into EVERYTHING that you do will make you life and/or business better but only if they’re REAL.
Here are two things I’ve learned coaching people that can help you get actual results from implementing this timeless wisdom:
1) Like any other part of GROWING REAL, you need to dive a little deeper than just the surface of your life to find the TRUTH.
This applies to the vision you create for yourself, the purpose you dedicate your life to, and anything else – before you start DOING anything you need to raise AWARNESS about who you really are and what life is and then you need to ACCEPT reality and build on a solid foundation (Awareness – Acceptance – Action works EVERY time when it comes to transformation).
If you don’t raise awareness and cultivate acceptance first then you’ll spend your life chasing PHANTOMS because you’re unconsciously running away from yourself instead of consciously choosing to run towards something true/REAL.
The key thing to remember here is that THE WORLD IS NOT REALITY – in relation to your values this means that you may initially be chasing or trying to embody values that don’t even belong to you. You just picked them up passively and used them as fuel to your sense of identity (that belongs to the world, not ‘You’).
2) When it comes to values, you need to make sure they’re REAL (like we just said) but also that you have CLARITY about what you mean with the values you hone in on.
For example, one of my values is ‘creativity’ but what I mean by that word and how I expect it to show up in my life might be TOTALLY different to what you mean. That’s fine but you need to make sure you’re living your values according to YOUR definitions and nobody else’s (and then putting those definitions into action).
As Elvis said: “Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave them all over everything you do.”
Make sure you’re doing something REAL!
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This free-guide has 8 tangible steps and exercises to bring more REALNESS into your business: olianderson.co.uk/blueprint
Big list of values on my site (if you want inspiration): olianderson.co.uk/values
