I hope you had a great week and fun Halloween! Here is a picture of our Spiderman and Toy Story’s Jessie 🙂
Today’s article is about getting clear on your values and how to align them with your business.
Getting clear on your values means getting clear on what is important to you in your life. Values can be anything from family, romance, fun, happiness, freedom, work / life balance, financial security, freedom, etc. They are things that you value the most importance on, and they are not anything you can buy or do. Choosing 5 values will help you set the parameters for your entire life and help you set goals so that you can live your ideal life.
Take a couple of minutes and write down the top 5 values that are the most important to you. Mine are family, self-care, financial freedom, spirituality (growth), and fun! If you have a partner then it is helpful to do this exercise together so that you can set goals with each other too.
From there you can set goals in each of these 5 areas. David Bach, author of “Smart Couples Finish Rich”, recommends that you set a 12-month goal under e ach value and then take some kind of action within 48 hours. For example, if your dream is to own a home in the mountains, you may start of by researching the different areas and prices of homes by the mountains.
By identifying your values, you also start to make decisions that are only in line with your values. For example, my husband and I were feeling like we hadn’t had a weekend to just “be” in awhile. We almost replied “yes” to another birthday party Jude was invited to, and then I caught myself. Why was I blindly going to reply “yes”? Jude didn’t even realize he was invited, so it wasn’t a big deal in terms of him not going. We wanted a weekend without any plans. A weekend at home was going to make us happy, and so attending this party didn’t fit with any of our values. Having a family weekend satisfied three of our values; family, self-care and fun. So I replied “no” and this really did feel liberating. It was also interesting to watch the other mother’s reactions when the only explanation we gave was that it didn’t work for us. I could write a whole other ezine on that 🙂
When you make more and more decisions that are in line with your values, you will feel in control of your life. You will no longer do things out of obligation and will also feel less stressed. If you don’t take care of yourself, who will? You will also be working towards the goals you set that are in line with your values and be excited to achieve them.
Making sure your business is in alignment with your business is also important. Otherwise, what is the point? Think abut your ideal lifestyle and how your business goals can support it. Have fun creating your ideal life.