Now that’s some sound advice: “Know thyself.” Thanks Plato! Hey, you’re probably right as you’re universally seen as one of the most influential philosophers of all time. But why such a short quote? Why does it feel like such an open door? Why is it important? And why is it so hard… Know thyself. Do you know yourself? Will you ever? Man, this short quote raises so many questions, psychological questions, philosophical questions, existential questions even.
I sure didn’t know where to start. Knowing yourself seems like a wise thing to do, like powerful knowledge. I mean, if you - of all people: the one that spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year (and then some) with you - don’t know who you are. Who on earth will?! On the other hand, you probably know lotsa people that think they know you, really know you. And you know they’re wrong most of the time…but incredibly right at times. Frustrating stuff.
Self-discovery
Hi! It’s me. Hi me, nice to finally meet you! What is it that drives you?
Getting to know yourself can be quite fun. You could do a virtual self interview, but for most people that’s too strange to even ponder doing. Thankfully there are a plethora (I always wanted to use that word someday) of ways to do it easier. Let me provide you with some links: Click to continue »
I’m happy to announce the official launch of my first e-book: Personal Core Values; a practical guide to discover YOUR personal core values.
Personal Core Values is all about discovering your values. If you’re a regular reader of How to be an Original, you know that I’ve gone through the process of discovering my personal core values years ago. And I use them on a regular basis to this day. I’ve written about my personal core values on this blog before, and I talked about how I used them when I wrote my personal mission statement.
Those articles are an account of how I found my values, and how I use them. But this is not about me, it’s about you. Because reading about how I discovered my values may be nice, what’s ultimately more important is how you can discover yours!
That’s why I wrote this e-book. It’s a guide for you, that will help you start discovering your personal core values, one by one. To accommodate this there are four (actually five) exercises. Every exercise has a brief introduction of what you can expect and how to prepare. Most exercises have worksheets to help you through the process (some of them contain gems!).
The 66 page e-book is divided in three parts:
What are Personal Core Values
This part explores what values are, and more specifically what Personal Core Values are. You will learn the various characteristics of values and what it takes to make it one of those special Personal Core Values.
Discovering Your Personal Core Values
This is where you’ll find the four exercises that will help you discover YOUR Personal Core Values. Choose the ones that appeal to you, you really don’t need to do all of them (but you’re more than welcome to!)
Using Your Personal Core Values
At the end of Part II you will know your Personal Core Values. Part III gives some examples of how you can use them in relationships, decision making and for crafting a personal mission statement.
You can get this e-book for only $14. After that all you have to do is invest the hours for reading it and doing the exercises. And a couple of hours and 14 bucks is a great deal for this kind of life-aligning knowledge.
The instant-download e-book is easy to print or read on screen. And not to forget, you also get a 30-day money back guarantee, in case you’re not satisfied with it after all. Click here to buy it now.
The complete table of contents:
Part I: What are Personal Core Values
Doing what you love to do consistently
Characteristics of values
Personal core values
Part II: Discovering your Personal Core Values
Exercise I: Brain Writing
Exercise 2: A Trip Down Memory Lane
Exercise 3: The Last Speech
Exercise 4: The Treasure Hunt
Wrap up: The Final Five
Part III: Using your Personal Core Values
Using Your Personal Core Values
Personal Core Values in Relationships
Personal Core Values and Decisions
Personal Core Values and Your Mission Statement
Affiliate program:
If you have a blog or website and would like to offer the Personal Core Values e-book to your readers, I’m offering a 50% affiliates commission. If you’d like to become an affiliate, sign up here. Mail me if you need banners.
‘Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
~ Lyrics from “Rockstar” by Nickelback
Fifteen cars? Is that what you want too? Chances are that the thought of something similar has crossed your mind at some time in your life. How couldn’t it have, we’re pummeled with the marketed picture of those “perfect” lives almost on a daily basis.
And that’s a problem. There are so many influences and media these days that we are consistently battered with messages about stuff to do, be or want. Sure, we zap away, develop ad blindness, take it with a grain of salt or even ridicule the commercials. But they work anyway. Trust me on this one, they work. On you, on me, on everyone.
Now featured in the self help literature
It’s not that concerning when it comes to what brand of soda we buy, or what brand of beer. But the effect extends to the level of the way we want to live our lives. Our goals and our visions of how a successful life are lived are influenced by them in a major way.
This trend has even crossed over to the self help section of your book store. Stories of abundance and grand riches have always been a part of the success literature, partly because it’s one of the most common ways of measuring success and partly because that’s what people are looking for. But if you look carefully at how they are presented, there’s been a a change.
It changed from examples to a theory or a message, to the example of how it’s done and what you should want too. The book and the accompanying movie “The Secret” are a big example for this phenomenon. I’ve written about them before, and if you read that you know that I’m divided about the message.
Overly focused on materialistic objects
One of the effects that I totally hate is the overfocus on the materialistic translation of being successful. Somehow that’s the effect that gets across the most and in the most ridiculous way too. If you haven’t seen the movie, watch this video that’s available at the website of The Secret:
It’s something isn’t it? Videos like these inspire other people to make videos like these (search youtube for mind movies and find many more):
(why are Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, John Lennon and Mother Theresa in there?!)
It’s amazing, it’s so MTV Cribs. Hilltop houses and fifteen cars. I mean I can understand Jay Leno, he has a passion for cars. He’s a collector, and collectors are passionately crazy about the objects they collect. But a random set of expensive high performance cars, what’s it gonna bring you? That’s the question not a lot of people ask themselves.
Goals are often solutions, result oriented. And especially in western society we have a tendency to translate that into a materialistic result. Something tangible, something we can measure. The Secret has given people examples of goals (houses, dollars, cars, shoes, diamonds) that represent a big monetary value.
But what does the money bring you? What does owning a hilltop house bring you? What does owning three performance cars bring you? What does [insert materialistic object] bring you?
What does owning … bring you?
Money can bring you a sense of certainty, peace of mind. That’s a result! It can be “Fuck you money” by bringing you the ability to say no to stuff that you don’t want to do. That’s a result! The money by itself is nothing, it represents something for you. And that something is what makes it valuable. The same goes for the cars, the private jet, the multiple houses. What do they bring you? What makes them valuable for you.
And when you know what they bring you, you know that you have defined a solution to getting that. How many alternatives can you come up with that bring the same effect? I can bet with you that there are alternatives that are more viable, more authentic, than the marketed goals that we are likely to adopt.
I know I’ve fallen victim to it. On several occasions even. But I usually recognize them later on, and cross them off my list ruthlessly and think about what result I’m really after and what alternative ways there are to accomplish them. I’ve found that there always are. And usually simpler too.
As the world is buzzing about the keynote speech Steve Jobs gave yesterday at Macworld Expo, I want to draw your attention to another speech he gave: the commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005.
In this speech Steve Jobs tells three stories. They are stories with a message of the lessons life presents and about how your choices define the outcome of those lessons. The underlying message throughout the speech is a message of authenticity, about being true to your own values, needs and wants, about listening to your own inner voice.
Enjoy this 15 minute video:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs
On Tuesdays I write about Living my Legend. This section is inspired by The Alchemist and is an account of my journey of living my potential.
This is the first post in this section. I announced it over three weeks ago and it has developed in my mind since then. Maybe it was foresight, but tuning in to my legend and making the inner connection have been on my mind ever since. I have spent time to reconnect and things are becoming very clear. I expect that I have a lot of material for posts, but I will only post them when they are ‘ripe’.
Personal values
I have five personal values that I regard as my core values. They represent the things I want to experience in this life. The first time I actively discovered these personal values was 6 years ago, during an intense session with a guided meditation. At that time I recognized them, but did not know what to do with them and how they could be useful. Click to continue »
