30DLBL, Daily Life

#409 : 5th Day of 30DLBL Challenge ~ Values

5th day already on 30DBLBL. The task today is all about values of our life, after we decide our mission statement.

Values

Values is something that support our life to reach the its best state. If you have already decided your mission, then next step is to choose values in the way you want to live your life, of course it should be aligned with your mission before. It will become your gold standard. Some examples of values are diligence (highly known from Asian people), hard-working, loyalty (i think this is really match the Japanese people), and etc.

Today’s task – Identify Our Values

So, today’s task is to identify our values. Well, i will quote example from Celes’ values:

  1. Excellence. Excellence is really the core of who I am and what I do. This is why the blog is called The Personal Excellence Blog. All of us have such immense, unlimited potential, and it’s our destiny to live truest to who we can be. To do anything less is to sell ourselves short; to deny ourselves of our true potential.
  2. Passion. Passion represents 2 things to me. First is the things I love. Living, growing, helping others grow, being with people, connecting, being alive. I believe life is about doing things you love, not things you don’t believe in. Forcing yourself to do things you don’t like is just meaningless and empty. The second is love itself. Not just romantic love, but compassion and unconditional love. Caring for others, being cared for, seeing people care for each other, parental love, family love, lovers’ love, kinship, people love, warmth, genuinity, harmony. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever I witness or experience expressions of love. :D
  3. Courage. To face anything and everything that comes my way, regardless of what it is. The unconscious self’s natural reaction to fear is to avoid or shrink away. However, fear represents a part of us that is incapable of handling the situation. Hence, by facing the fear, we literally grow. Courage is choosing to face what’s before you without shrinking away, even if we may be daunted. When I choose the path of courage, I know I’m growing immediately.
  4. Truth. I believe part of the journey of life is to discover the truth that’s out there. I don’t align myself with any particular school of thought; rather I focus on doing things myself and discovering truth for myself as I see it. To be in line with truth empowers you; to hide and deny yourself of what’s before you is to limit and disempower yourself. Only by embracing truth will we be truly free.
  5. Authenticity. Genuinity. Being upfront and honest in your interactions with others. Being sincere and earnest in your relationships with other people. Being who you are and not hiding anything from others.

Those very nice values from Celes, with great and certain purpose.

The instruction itself is divided into two parts (you can see completely here). Part 1 is :

  1. Start on a new page of your 30DLBL workbook. On top, label “My Values”
  2. Write your desired traits/qualities/values. What kind of person do you want to be? What are the traits you want to embody? Write as many as possible. The more you can write, the better. When I work with my 1-1 clients, we come up with an initial list of at least 10 or more values, sometimes even 30 or more! Below are 3 helping points:
    1. Picture your ideal self. What qualities will he/she possess? What makes him/her your ideal self?
    2. What were the incidences when you were annoyed in the past period? Why were you annoyed? What do you think were the values that were violated that caused you to feel that way?
    3. Were there any moments in the past period where you were extremely happy/excited/proud of yourself? Why? What was it about the situation that made you feel this way?
  3. Pick the top 10. Once you are done, pick out the 10 most important values out of the list. You’ll find some values are similar to others. If so, just group them together and pick an adjective that best represents this set.
  4. Choose the top 5. Now, pick the 5 most important. While all of us can have a lot of qualities we value as important, the most important is to know the top 5 values. That’s because the other values are usually represented in some way by the top 5 values. Once we live true to these 5 values, we’re in fact living true to all other qualities we hold dear. They are like the big rocks that hold everything.
  5. Rank the 5 values in order of 1-5. This makes it clear to you what is the #1 value you want to embody, followed by #2, and so on. Congratulations; you have found your 5 core values :D . These are your 5 core values that will help you be the highest you in this world.
  6. Share your values in the comments area with others. Share what they are, what you mean by each value, and what you’re going to do to live in fullest alignment with the values.

Part 1 of today’s task is related in the process of defining and deciding our values. Celes ask us to choose our best 5 values. There are some reasons why we need only 5, because sometimes the 5 most important can cover another values, and it’s quite simple to remember our 5 most important values rather than so many values.

Part 2 of this task will be to integrate those values into your life.

  1. Add to your vision board. Now that you’ve created your values, add it to your vision board, below your mission statement. You can even find new pictures that represent these 5 values to add to the board :D .
  2. Find an easy way to remember the values. Your values are you, so you should be able to readily remember them no matter where you are. One thing I did was pick the first letter of each value to create a 5-letter acronym.
  3. Recite your values daily. As you start your day, recite your values. Do it throughout the day as well, till you can remember your values by heart. When I first started I would recite my values once every hour or few hours. Today, my values are a natural part of who I am and I know them off my head, so there’s no need for me to recite them anymore.
  4. Live true to your values. Picture yourself embodying these 5 values 100% all the time. As someone who embodies these 5 values, what will you do? How will you behave? What will you say? What can you do to align myself even more to my values? Be true to them.
  5. Use your values as a compass. Whenever you are in a fix, use your values as your guide on what to do. What is the decision that is most aligned to your values? What action should you take that best matches your values?
  6. Review your values regularly. Once every 3 months will be great. Check to ensure these values represent the best person you want to be.

My Values

Here are my 5 values:

  1. Trust : I believe that trust is the most important thing in our life, especially in our relationship with another people. If our relationship is not based on trust, we will always live in suspicious world, that we always distrust other person. So, I will always think how can i be trusted by other people (this has some connection with point number 2 i think, which is integrity). And of course, i would also like to trust other people. Trust here doesn’t mean believe everything they said, but it more like not easily become suspicious.
  2. Integrity: This value is related to live consistently and aligned with some moral standards, and the values i choose itself. So, i should be more careful with everything i do, in order to become a trustable person with integrity. Personally, i think it can cover some other values of mine, such as consistency, honesty, truthfulness, and etc, because what makes your integrity is your way to live your life, whether you are consistent with your values, you honest with your life, be responsible with your action and so on.
  3. Wisdom: This value is related to become wise and mature in facing every problem. Somehow, small problems can be a big trouble just because we exaggerate it, we overact our reaction, not thinking wisely what the consequences we have after doing some action. So, for me, i would like to have a wisdom values in my life, so that i will be able to choose my best way to deal with life problems, in order to get the best result for me and everyone else.
  4. Excellence: This value is related to give my best at everything i do. since it become to be one of my mission statement before, so i will try to do the best, to get excellent life i want to. Also, personally, I am such a high-achiever. I want to give the most i am able to do and get the best result I am capable of, because, I think, each of us are given some talents with unique purpose in our life, and it’s our responsibility to expand ourself into our highest potential by giving our best and strive for excellence.
  5. Love: Love here doesn’t mean love as in romance relationship. But, unconditional love to every person i meet. I think, love is a very universal values that can unite every single person in the world, that we do not need to argue badly, create a war, or do something bad to other people. Instead, with love, we can make a better and peaceful living.

Living with My Values

Related to those values i have chosen before, here are some examples what i will do to have fullest life:

  • Learn to carefully trust everybody, assume that all of us always have a good purpose.
  • Live consciously and consistently with my values, so that i will have some integrities inside of me.
  • Become wiser and careful in every action i do, especially if i have to deal with some dilemmas and difficult situations. I will have to think not just for current condition, but also for the future consequences.
  • Love everybody unconditionally, especially for those who has been very close to me.
  • Always try to give my best in everything I do. Not easily give up if I find some obstacles.

Well, this is my 5 values task.. I think, tomorrow, i will edit my vision board, adding my mission statement and my values inside of it :)..

Happy Sunday everyone.