Knowing What You Value

Here we are at the values part of the discussion. You probably saw it coming. I know you’ve heard it all before. Vision. Mission. Values. Goals. But these things truly are key to living an Elite Life. I tried to make it clear that you mission and vision can change as you change, so you don’t have to carve them in stone. But your values will tend not to change as much. They can, but they aren’t as fluid.

One of my values, and it has been for a long time is to have fun, make things fun, enjoy what you are doing even if you don’t enjoy what you are doing. That is why I decided to change up my image a little this week and you will likely see similar changes with future posts. I like to have fun and make things fun. I will crack a joke in a tense situation or a meeting just to lighten things up a bit. Fun to me is a must and something I value without question.

As I was thinking about an image for this post, I started playing around with an app I use a lot and was thinking, “I’m not sure a fun image will fit the vibe.” Then I realized how much this went against my entire nature. I like fun. Some people might say it isn’t professional, but since when does being professional mean that you can’t have fun. Maybe that’s why so many people hate their jobs because we have decided that a job can’t be fun. Southwest Airlines has fun with their announcements all the time. So you will begin to see more of that value coming forth.

This is how values help you. They help you to make decisions. Just sitting here trying to decide on an image and worrying about the aesthetic, and all that nonsense was making me stress out. Until I started having fun with it. One of the things a coach helps you do is to identify your values. There are exercises to help with this, but like so many things, it sometimes helps to have someone there drawing things out of us. Others can sometimes help us identify our values as well. When people get to know you, they learn what makes you tick and how you make decisions.

I am the kind of person who will wake up Saturday morning and say, “Let’s drive to San Antonio for lunch today. It’s only a three hour drive.” Because it sounds like fun to me. So a coach can help with the values identification process. One thing I tell people to stay away from though is “integrity.” It is too easy to list as a value and people often feel obligated to list it because they feel like they should have it. Integrity is what you have if you are living your values. So if you value fun, and you have fun and make things fun, then you have integrity.

Hope this helps, and if I can help you with any of these things, drop me a message. Happy to help if I can.