Develop Your Values

Good morning!  Have you been thinking about the direction of your life?  Or, have you been too busy to think about it?  Well, that could be a sign.  It could mean you are going so many direction that you don't know which way you're headed or that you are so sure of your direction, that you don't even need to think about it anymore!  So if the latter is you, then read no further, but I'd welcome your testimony on how you developed your roadmap and stayed on course.  We could all benefit from the wisdom and experience of others.

Why is it so important to navigate the direction of our lives?  Because if we don't take control of our lives, someone else will.  Have you ever found your days completely filled with things other people wanted you to do and at the end of the day, you realize you didn't do anything you wanted or needed to get done?  You can't count the things you do for your family, especially if your family is one of your values.  But it can count if family member are taking advantage of you when they could have done for themselves the things you did for them.  That's called enabling and it's unhealthy to you and to the person you are doing things for.  Well, I am getting off the subject...enabling is a topic all of its own.

Let's back up a few steps and start with first things first.  Today, begin with listing what you value.  Think of your life as building a new home.  We are going to pour the foundation today.  Although the foundation is not the "fun" part of building a house, it's one of the most important.  It's what everything else is built on and if it's unstable, or weak, or unlevel...then everything else is going to be that way too.  Some people wonder why their lives are unraveling.  Once they start to dissect their behavior, they often realize that everything they've been doing has been for the wrong reasons.  They might say they value family (part of their foundation) but they are never home and never available to the people they love.  So, they either need to review their values or change their behavior!

Our values should rarely, if ever change.  Unless we didn't spend enough time on thinking about our values, then these should remain constant throughout our lives.  So take the time to write down what you believe in...your principles, the core of your beliefs.  This is your foundation.  Take care to use the strongest and best materials to lay the foundation of your life.  We'll go to the next step, Vision, in the next post.

P.S.  As an example, in case you're stumped, go to MorningCoach.com - they have a list of example values that are excellent.  The site also provides a place for you to write your own personal life plan, where you can develop it, update it and keep it for daily review.  (click on the banner at the top of this post - it's free!)  My values are:  Faith, Family, Serving Others, Wisdom & Knowledge