There is a close connection between the values we live by and what we accomplish in life. In fact, we can identify and use our values to live productively and be aligned to what is really important to us.
Do you have a list of values that you live by? These are not a random list of character qualities but attributes of the person you want to be (according to Nir Eyal). As an example, here are my 7 core values: Growth, Excellence, Truth, Relationships, Innovation, Commitment and Helping.
Pause and reflect on the power of Values from these words by Alain Deguire: “Your core values are the driving force in your life! Living by your values is a fundamental key on your way to becoming the person you want to be, to achieve your goals and dreams as well as to establishing the basis of your relationship with yourself and others.”
Here are 3 Things you can do using values to become the person you want to be:
1. Identify Your Values
Start by identifying five to seven Values that reflect what is most important to you and that reveal what you are becoming in life. Here are two ways you can identify your values: (1) Reflect on moments in life that left you feeling satisfied, significant or joyful – because experiences like these can reveal our values. (2) Select values from lists of available values and narrow the list down from 20 to 10 and then to around 5 to 7. I have created a Workbook you can use to do this exercise. Once you have your list of Values you need to create a one-sentence Description of each value which describes the kind of person you are becoming. This is how I describe Innovation which is one of my values: “I am a person who invents new ways to understand or do things.” Plus you should create an Acronym for goals to help you remember them. Mine is GET RICH (Growth, Excellence, Truth, Relationships, Innovation, Commitment and Helping). In case you are wondering, being rich to me is not just about money – in fact, Sahil Bloom has a book where he explores 5 Types of Wealth: Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth.
It’s Your Turn: Identify your core values, create an acronym to remember them and describe them clearly!
2. Link Your Values
Next you should link your values to goals in your life by either creating new Goals for each value or doing some reverse engineering by linking existing goals you have to the values you have just identified. Here is an example of a Goal I have for my Innovation value: Learn from books, podcasts or articles every day. And here is one of my goals for the value of Relationships: Connect with one friend a day. Try and make each goal as specific as possible so it leads you to a next action and also make it measurable so you can ensure it gets achieved. Oh, I have more than one Goal linked to each Value!
—> It’s Your Turn: Link the core values to your life using goals that are specific and measurable.
3. Track Your Values
Finally you should create a way to track the progress you are making in living your values. If you create goals that are measurable you should easily be able to create a Metric for each of your values which will help you track your progress. The Metric will give you a Task, Project or Habit to add into your action management system which can be ticked off when it is completed. Be sure to look for metrics that are not once off – so if you Value is Learning – don’t make the metric: “Read The 5 Types of Wealth Book This Week” – rather make it “Spend 30 Minutes a Day Reading to Learn” and then you can add a Habit to your life (Read for 30 Minutes Every Day) and add a Project (Read the 5 Types of Wealth Book) and a Task (Summarise Chapter 1 of The 5 Types of Wealth Book). I hope this example will help you create actionable metrics for your values!
—> It’s Your Turn: Create one metric for each of your values.
Challenge:
I challenge you to: (1) Identify Your Values and List them, (2) Link Your Values to your Goals, and (3) Track your Values using Metrics. Don’t forget you can use the free Workbook I created for you to use to identify and track your values.