Howdy! I’m glad you’re here! This is a series, so please start at Part 1, if you’re just coming by for the first time.

STRENGTHEN YOUR VALUES

Values drive everything we do.

In fact… until a client has gone through one of our values workshops (we have a free one called our karma class and hope you’ll come!)… we won’t evaluate whether working together one on one is even an option.

For example, in the last year… of everyone that applied for individual coaching… one… yes, only one… had a working list of values and a personal mission statement. We talk about this anomaly at great length in my upcoming book.

And for good reason.

Your values are ultimately your North Star. They are the guiding set of principles that you go to for insight when faced with any decision. You are and will always be your own best guide. In coaching, we commonly use the phrase that the client is “creative, resourceful and whole”. This is why I don’t have to be an expert in your industry in order to help you advance. That’s a consultant, and there is a huge difference between a consultant and a coach.

Your inner critic is a powerful foe – identifying your values and truly understanding where they come from is one of the most powerful tools we have for turning your inner critic into an inner coach.

When I started my coaching education at Brown University, they beat this into us repeatedly. Ultimately you are your own best guide. What a coach does, whether it’s in sports or in life, is identify the blocks that it’s literally impossible for us to see in ourselves. You can’t see the label from inside the bottle, as it were. That is why someone who has no skin in the game (ie: not your spouse or boss or parent) is the best option for high-level development.

It’s like hiring a well-educated personal cheerleader whose only focus is your success. Amazing right? And one of the very first and most important things we talk about is your values.

HOW DO I START?

When starting with a new client or at one of our free monthly workshops on the topic, the beginning exercise to start identifying your values goes something like this:

Think back to a time when you felt your life was “on purpose,” when everything felt “right,” when you made decisions and “knew” they were the right ones.

We’ve all had that experience at some point, haven’t we?

High-performing and successful people have this feeling more often than not. They’ve tipped the scales in their favor. How?

At times you’ve certainly had these feelings as well.

What caused those feelings of “rightness”… was that what you were doing was in line with your values system. You simply didn’t identify it as such at the time.

Once we build a working set of values… and keep in mind this is a living document that constantly changes… we can build your personal mission statement… which could easily be its own series of posts!

As I said before, starting to identify your values with no bias, understanding where they come from and why, and recognizing the silent role they play in every decision you’ve ever made puts a very powerful tool at your disposal. I believe it’s one of the most important things you can do for yourself both personally and professionally.

Like most things… you can absolutely do this on your own… but it’s far better to have a helping hand.

I regularly review my values list and PMS (not that PMS) with my mentor… and we adjust accordingly. It should be a living, breathing document that changes as you change as a person. Something you can always reference during those “big moments”…and likely many of the smaller ones.

If that interests you, I encourage you to attend one of our free values workshops. We do them once a month, completely free, as a “karma class.” You can also reach out to me personally; I’d love to connect.

I hope to see you there!

PS: If you’ve made it this far in this series…it means you’re a little crazy just like me. I love that! Hang in there! Just a couple more to go.

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See you on the journey.