JKLTip Write down the values that build the foundation for everything you do
The writing is on the wall that I will continue to blog daily, create videos with an entertaining, educational twist, run an online store and collaborate with people all over the world. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but first I want to interrupt this stream of consciousness to focus specifically on the topic of values. I have six values that lay the foundation for everything that I am working on. I have decided that everything I do will be in support of truth, trust, perspective, gratitude, collaboration, and just keep learning.
Values remind us those around us what we actually care about. We only have so much time to accomplish, answering this question is very important. Important because we should be spending all of our time doing what we truly care about. In other words we must always live in alignment and measure our success, only if it aligns with our values. In a short time working online, I have received a lot of questions about why I take a certain approach. The short answer is because the project or task was tackled with my values at the core.
It is a term we use as the foundation for what we do as an individual or a team. As businesses or schools we define a set of values that our stakeholders by into. Used effectively our employees, clients and support systems prop these values up. The issue is we often don’t know what they actually mean. These should be the non-negotiable within the work we do. It is crucial to go beyond naming the values and putting them on a website poster but to actually live them. Not just sometimes but all the time. If this seems too challenging, then it either the person, the values, or the actions need to change.
Our actions need to align with our core values all of the time without exception. In order for this to happen we must ensure everyone understands them. We must create the operational definition for what that value looks like. It is unbelievable how often these exercises are seen as boring or useless. If done well then they should be anything but. They should be exciting. They because they are aligned with what we love to do. Who we become is a sum total of our values expressing themselves in the real world, in real time.
Throughout the last few months I have started to pursue bucket list dreams and goals. I have made a promise to live as though today could be my last. Staying true to my belief that everything we do should align with our values I wanted to take some time, a quick interruption, to reevaluate these values and share them with you. If I create content, if I work on a project, if I do something, anything at all, it aligns. There’s no set number of values everyone should define. It is important to define them so we can measure and focus on them with 100% certainty. I have come up with 6. For the next 6 days my daily entries will speak to one of these values per day, elaborating on what that value means and why I prescribe to it.
Want to know what My First Value means to me? TRUTH
Come Talk With me about this on Twitter – Justin Nolan