What is your compass?

 

What is truly important to you.... what do you value most? Do you ever think about this or ask yourself this very important question? If not, I would suggest you consider it. Knowing what is important to us is very important as it is what guides our decisions, or it should anyhow. So many people, when asked this question express uncertainty, and struggle with identifying how to answer. To be able to answer this question provides a compass for us, making decision making easier in that we have a target. Without this, decision making can be haphazard and we often end up disappointed with results.

Knowing what is important to us also helps us to set, in advance, what we want the outcome to be. So, for instance, peace is important to me, so if I set that as my goal that tends to be the outcome of my experiences. If I want to have peace before entering a difficult situation, I am more inclined to find peace in the situation. Our minds are POWERFUL; what we focus on we get more of… what we want in any situation we can find.

If you have never thought about this… how about now? Here is a list of “values” you can read through and I would suggest you consider what do you want to guide your life? What do you want directing your decisions and to have as the outcome of your decisions.

Remember, values are not goals…. There is no end point to a value… it is a guide. i.e. I will never ultimately arrive to peace… it is a way of being… not a final event.

• Authenticity
• Achievement
• Adventure
• Authority
• Autonomy
• Balance
• Beauty
• Boldness
• Compassion
• Challenge
• Citizenship
• Community
• Competency
• Contribution
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Determination
• Fairness
• Faith
• Fame
• Friendships
• Fun
• Growth
• Happiness
• Honesty
• Humor
• Influence
• Inner Harmony
• Justice
• Kindness
• Knowledge
• Leadership
• Learning
• Love
• Loyalty
• Meaningful Work
• Openness
• Optimism
• Peace
• Pleasure
• Poise
• Popularity
• Recognition
• Religion
• Reputation
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Security
• Self-Respect
• Service
• Spirituality
• Stability
• Success
• Status
• Trustworthiness
• Wealth
• Wisdom

After identifying what your top three (to start) are, start to consider the following:

·       What decisions am I currently facing that can be better clarified by focusing on this value, by allowing this value to inform my decision making?

·       Where in my life can I place this value as the thing I want BEFORE the actual event/experience, so that it can be the outcome.

·       How will my life look when I am willing to do this… to allow these values clarify and shape the way I live? Try to imagine this for a minute to get a real feel for it… in this way you are starting to tell your subconscious how you as a conscious self, want your decisions and therefore your life, to be experienced. And then vision yourself taking these actions coming from the energy, the feeling, of this value. And then do at least one thing that is in alignment with this value to further cement it into your subconscious mind.

·       Now keep repeating this process and watch how your life begins to change. It can help to journal on your experiences, because when you intentionally take the time to write about it you naturally begin to pay more attention. And the more you pay attention and notice the changes, the more motivation increases to keep going.

If you would like assistance and support, please reach out at kelly@kellylewishealing.com.