Values are the foundation for living happy successful lives.
You deserve happiness, abundance and health. The key to your happiness is you. When you know your values, and live your life by your values, you are a happier and healthier person. Often people live their lives without knowing their values and they make decisions based on other people’s expectations. When people make decisions this way they aren’t living the life they are meant to live! They are unhappy and live a life of lack, of wanting more in one or more areas of their lives.
I used to live my life without knowing my values. I wasn’t living my truth. I wasn’t being the me that I wanted to be, I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do, and I wasn’t living how I wanted to live.
Have you ever been in a canoe on a windy day, and paddling just didn’t seem to get you anywhere? I’ve been in a canoe on a windy day, and my paddling wasn’t getting me anywhere. The canoe would go this way and that way. I was facing the wrong direction. I tried to correct my direction by turning the canoe. I was going in a new direction but it still wasn’t the direction that I wanted to go. I was going around in circles and not getting anywhere.
This is how my life felt when I wasn’t living by my values. I made decisions based on what was expected of me, or what I thought was expected of me. I didn’t have my values clearly defined and written down. I didn’t have significant goals for myself in all areas of my life.
It was like the canoe going in all different directions but the direction that I wanted it to. I was going around in circles in my life.
When I was in the canoe on that windy day, it was a challenge for me to get the canoe going in the right direction without making some major changes. I had to trim the canoe, to find a better balance from where to paddle. I turned myself around in the canoe so that I paddled backward to move forward. After struggling, I found my balance and was able to move in the direction that I wanted to more easily and steadily.
My balance was off in my life as well. I was unhappy and unhealthy.
I gradually realized that I wasn’t living by my values, and what my values meant to me. I read a book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey. I clarified my values, I wrote my values down along with what the value meant to me. I set significant goals in all areas of my life.
I found my balance and started growing in the direction that I wanted to go. I started being who I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do and living how I wanted to live!
I took responsibility for my life. I am happy and harmonious with my mind at peace with my heart.
Values are a belief that is meaningful to you. Values are priorities that tell you how to spend your time, right here, right now. Stephen Covey says, “(values) are the source of our passions in life, and they help us determine where we focus our energies.”
When you know your values and what they mean to you; creating goals and making decisions are easier. Your values are your guidance system.
And like finding the balance in a canoe on a windy day, knowing your values is like finding your balance for your life. You choose to live by your values, and living by your values creates your happy and harmonious life.
Live Your Truth!