When you live according to what is important to you, you’re living in tune with your deepest self. Discovering what your values are helps you to make wiser decisions. Learn 6 ways to clarify your values and gain the sense of fulfillment living according to them gives you.
In this rare video, Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich,” explains about the power of the Master Mind principle and alliance. He gives three steps to do to establish what you want in the area of success. “Your mental attitude is the only thing over which you have complete control,” he says. You are the only person who can limit you.
~ Linda-Ann Stewart
by Linda-Ann Stewart
Living up to your values isn’t always easy. Sometimes it can be inconvenient and difficult, such as trying to carve out family time from a busy professional life. But if you try to rationalize and ignore your standards, because it’s expedient in the situation, you’ll create internal strife and tension. When you violate your values, you feel abandoned, because you’ve betrayed your deepest self.
Honoring your values builds empowerment and self-worth. By supporting what you feel is important, you validate yourself and your choices. You feel good about yourself, feeling more whole and complete. By taking action on what you feel is right for you, you build a sense of self-respect. You approve of yourself and your actions.
When you live in alignment with your standards, then you feel worthy of happiness, abundance, joy, and all good. You’re more open to the Universal flow of good. There is less inner resistance to it and you feel more deserving of it. Other people recognize that you’re more in tune with yourself, and are drawn to you. And because you can trust yourself, they’ll be able to trust you. Other people know what to expect from you and will respect you for that.
Learning what your values are helps you to make better decisions. You can ask yourself, “Does this allow me to support my values?” and “Does this violate my values?” Sometimes, the choice to follow your heart can be difficult in the short term. You may have to sacrifice something you want so that you’re in alignment with your deepest self. But the long term rewards for being true to yourself are beyond measure.
Affirmation
I recognize and honor the values that I cherish. When I need to make a choice, I consider what’s important to me. Even if it’s a difficult choice, I realize that it’s worth it. My values are unique to me and I deserve to live in alignment with them. As I’m true to myself, I open to more Universal good of abundance, happiness, and joy.
Copyright 2013 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
by Linda-Ann Stewart
Shakespeare said, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” When you are true to yourself, you follow certain values that you live your life by.
A moral is “You must be honest,” and are generally dictated by culture, society or religion. But when you’re working on your income tax return, you might feel that you’re entitled to keep the money that you’ve earned. In this case, your value would be that any way to elude the regulations is ok, so that you keep what you believe is rightfully yours. Values are core beliefs that you have accepted or created and they direct your actions and decisions.
Values are also attitudes and behaviors that you’ve consciously decided are important to you. They motivate you to act in constructive ways. They might have been inspired by others, but they are ideas that you have chosen to live by. What they aren’t are ideas that have been imposed on you or you think you should have.
For instance, if you enjoy being an omnivore (eating meat and vegetables), and your friends pressure you into being a vegetarian, that’s not a value that you’ve chosen for yourself. And you’ll probably eventually return to what resonates with you. Some values are created by fear, such as, “Don’t rock the boat,” or “Be invisible.” These are constrictive and don’t allow you to expand into your potential.
A positive core value would be one such as honesty, independence, empathy, order, personal power, risk taking, family time and similar concepts. When you uphold your values and live accordingly, you feel fulfilled and authentic. However, when you aren’t true to yourself, or violate your individual values, you feel anxious and out of sorts. You probably feel guilty because you’ve violated what you cherish.
For instance, if you value honesty, you can’t shoplift or steal from another. For Anabel, honesty was a core value. As a teenager, she accidentally walked out of a store with a candy bar. In a store across the mall, she realized what she’d done. She went directly back to the original store, explained what had happened and paid for it. Rather than taking the easy way out and just keeping the candy, she took action on what she valued. If she hadn’t, she would have violated what she held dear.
Copyright 2013 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
This is a rare video of Napoleon Hill talking about the classic “Think and Grow Rich.” In this video, he explains his concept of definiteness of purpose.
~ Linda-Ann Stewart
Business isn’t just about the bottom line and making money. It’s about making life better, for everyone: owners, investors, employees, customers and society at large. Business is about people, not inanimate objects. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude is that everyone is there to serve the business instead of the way it should be, the business serving society.
The business community’s philosophy of considering everyone just a cog on a wheel, whose purpose is to provide them with more money, has cost them. In Northern Arizona, most service and retail businesses refuse to allow their employees federally required lunches or breaks. Because of that, and their cavalier treatment of employees, their staff has no loyalty to them. When a business isn’t loyal to its employees, the employees return the same level of loyalty.
Many businesses drive away their best employees, and don’t invest in them or support them which would let them serve better. The mindset of “bottom lining” is a short sighted idea. It means that business puts on blinders that keep them from seeing other opportunities.
A local restaurant that had good food was sold. The new owners bought cheaper ingredients and the quality and taste of the food suffered. As a result, sales declined and the restaurant closed its doors. When business focuses only on today, and doesn’t take a long view of their future, it constricts the ability of the business to grow.
Finally, businesses are beginning to recognize that the lack of value they provide affects their bottom line. In the article “We Need To Stop Maximizing Profit and Start Maximizing Value” at businessinsider.com, the author addresses this issue.
Since the 1970’s, businesses have been focused on the bottom line. This has increased profits, but the quality of products and services and workers incomes have decreased. That means fewer consumer dollars are spent to grow business. It also means that the business isn’t investing in its own company.
“Maximizing profits” will eventually cause the house of cards to fall. More money is spent to train a revolving door of workers because there’s no reason for them to stick around.
Business needs to create more value for the community, and value its workers, for it to thrive. It’s in a business’ own interest to realize that business is not about products or making money. It’s about people and making life better.
To succeed, you have to break old habit patterns and establish new ones. As you change your mental attitude toward your goal, you’re left with an empty shell of the old one. By succeeding on each small step towards your goal, you create a habit of success.
The amazing motivational speaker and thought leader, Zig Ziglar, passed away this week at 86 years of age. He taught millions about the fundamentals of sales, success and how attitude makes all the difference. He didn’t even begin his career as a motivational speaker until he was in his 40’s.
As a speaker, he encouraged others to believe in themselves. Ziglar emphasized that a positive attitude must be followed up by action before success could be achieved. To listen to his inspiring podcasts, visit http://zigziglar.libsyn.com/
In this video, he tells the story of a woman who complained about her job, changed her attitude about it, and changed her life.
Change is a part of life. But it doesn’t happen all at once. When you were in school, you learned a little at a time, and built on what you knew. The same is true of life. Discover how you can improve this process and speed up your ability to change.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
by Linda-Ann Stewart
My friend Lily read lots of self-help books, listened to motivational CD’s and went to personal development workshops and then complained that her life didn’t improve. When I asked her if she’d practiced any of the exercises in the books or CD’s or workshops. “No,” she said. “That’s too much trouble.”
To change, you need to participate and use the tools you’ve found. It’s easy to fall back into old habits. They’re familiar and comfortable, but they won’t provide you with a new direction. They won’t improve your life. There’s an old saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
Negative thinking is simply a habit. People aren’t born to be pessimists, they learn to be that way. It can be changed with time, attention, and energy. One of the complaints of negative people is that it takes effort to be positive. It always takes work to change a habit, no matter what that habit might be.
Are you going to continue to float along with your old ways of thinking and doing things? If so, your life isn’t going to improve much. What are you willing to do to make it different? Think of one thing that you could start doing, and then commit to practice it every day. It could be meditating, self-hypnosis, being mindful, an affirmation, journaling or one of any number of other techniques and exercises that you’ve found over the years.
By choosing to make one small, consistent difference in the course of your life, you’ll begin to break up the inertia that’s gripped you. Each day that you follow through with your choice will take you in a new direction. You have the power to change your life. You just need to work it.
Affirmation
I have the ability to change my life. All the power of the Universe is available to me to create new ways of thinking and new beliefs. I now decide to use the tools that I’ve been given to create new habits that are more beneficial for me. My life will only improve if I choose to change it. I take charge of my life and commit myself to my well being.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved