I used to be really fit and eat healthy all the time, I used to exercise about 6 or 7 times a week, run marathons and I loved it, So I couldn't understand why I couldn't get back to even a half decent health and fitness routine! even though I wanted to, it was one of my 'goals'. Then one day a few weeks ago I did a values session to see where my values were, what was important to me.
Now in case you don't know, our values are what drive us and give reason to what we do, to give you an idea here is a very short list of some values;
- Integrity
- Creativity
- Independence
- Financial freedom
- Family
- Security
- Friendship
- Personal development
- Respect
If you have a value of having fun and that's important to you, you will find ways to have fun and depending where it is in your hierarchy of values you will look to have fun before a value that is lower on the list is catered for. If this value of having fun or any value is not catered for you'll find that your life may become 'out of balance' and you may start to feel demotivated about things, until it is then met. also this is how some issues can happen between partners and other people, if a partner stops you from meeting a value or having fun, you may start to feel resentment to them and this is where some relationships break down.
We tend to have between 10 and 15 values and the top 5 are the really important ones, you can do this now, get 15 cards or bits of paper and spend 5 minutes writing down one thing that important to you in life on each card, you can then sort through each card by taking 2 and asking 'if I could only have one of these, which would it be?' the one you choose goes up the list, until you have a hierarchy of values. You may at this point have an ah ha moment and understand why something is happening in your life or happened in the past! You can do a values session for your whole life, your work or business or relationships and so on.
So back to my goal of health and fitness, when I did a values session I found that health and fitness were unconsciously not even in my list of values! All of a sudden I understood why I wasn't reaching or starting my goal it just wasn't important to me unconsciously, therefore I kept sabotaging the goal, consciously I really want to get fit again so now I have changed my values and health and fitness is in the top 5. Now I've managed to keep at it for the past several weeks and still going strong, I've cracked it and health and fitness is again becoming a habit and I'm enjoying it.
When you are goal setting you should check that the goal is congruent with your values or you may find you'll sabotage it, if you have the goal of getting money, wealth, financial freedom or security and they are not in your values or very low down chances are you will not reach that goal. If you're serious about it, it may be time to move it up the list.
Financial freedom is one of my goals and until I did the values session it was in the top 5 and another value of mine is helping others however this wasn't in the top 5 so I decided to switch them round as I know that helping others will lead me to my goal of financial freedom. I now work to find ways to help other people where I can and also it's very satisfying too! On that basis as this blog is about wealth and I'd like to leave you with 2 of my favourite quotes and they are:
Try not to become a man of success, rather try to become a man of value - Albert Einstien and
Service to many leads to greatness...Find a way to serve the many - Jim Rohn (Re-worded from the bible)
To your success
Paul
