Doing What You Love To Do Consistently
editorial note: This blog post is the sample chapter from my e-book Personal Core Values, you can also download it as pdf on the Personal Core Values mini-site
Rocks hold firm while water’s might
Sends pebbles rolling left and right.
Call pebbles rock? Set firm their goal?
First flash flood, still pebbles roll.
Not name, nor goal divide the two.
It’s how they act. It’s what they do.
Size dictates to stone, but you are in control.
Are you rock or pebble? Will you hold or roll?
~ Manly Grant (Rhymes for the land)
Doing what you love to do consistently. Wouldn’t it be great if you could influence your life in such a way, that you maximized the amount of time that you do what you love to do?
It would be great, but life isn’t up to us to design completely. Some even say that life is what happens to us as we live it. And in fact we experience life as it happens and a lot of things that happen are out of our control. We have to deal with them and make the best of it, right?
Well, that may be true, but we’re not entirely out of control. We have an influence on how our life evolves, and it is up to ourselves to use that influence to live the life that fulfills us the most. This e-book will guide you through a process of discovering some elements that are essential in achieving just that.
At the end of the e-book you’ll be aware of what your Personal Core Values are, and you will know a couple of ways how you can use them to influence your life. Don’t expect miracles, they won’t happen. But steady progress towards a life that’s more fulfilling than it may be right now, that’s definitely
a feasible possibility.
Who are you?
If you find yourself struggling with answering the question of what it is that you want to do, chances are that you don’t know yourself well enough. Self knowledge is the foundation for taking control of your life in such a way that you maximize the time in which you do what you love to do.
To know what you love doing, you need to know yourself. In particular, you need to know your characteristics, values and ambitions. What you love to do usually lines up with your characteristics, is aligned with your values and brings you closer to your ambitions. Sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it?
Knowing your characteristics and defining your ambitions is beyond the scope of this e-book. This e-book is about discovering your value system, and in particular discovering your personal core values.
Personal Core Values
Personal core values are a special kind of values. They are the ones that are closest to your being, the ones that are the most important to you. They are at the foundation of who you are. As such they don’t require
justification; you don’t have to defend your values to others as they are part of you.
Personal Core Values:
- clarify who we are
- require no justification
- govern relationships
- guide us in making decisions
These values play an important role in our everyday life, as they influence almost everything we do or don’t do. They govern relationships we engage in and they guide us in making decisions.
Even if we’re not aware of what our personal core values are, they still perform their magic in this way. Look at your personal core values as what’s beneath the surface.
Just like the biggest part of an iceberg is beneath the surface of the water, your values, characteristics and ambitions are primarily beneath the surface as well. They are invisible to others, and if we don’t take deliberate action to identify them, also invisible to ourselves. But they’re there nevertheless.
How Knowing Your Personal Core Values Helps
How do you feel knowing that even if you don’t know what your personal core values are, they still have an effect on your everyday life, in your relationships and the decisions you make? Does that give you a feeling of being at ease? Of being in control?
If things are going well, we usually don’t worry about it that much. But when the going gets tough, we know our personal core values are playing a role in our life, but we’re not aware of what role and not aware of what they are. And exactly at that time is it beneficial to know them and actively use them.
Knowing your personal core values is not only beneficial when the going gets tough, they also help when you have regular decisions to make.
This is only the first chapter from the e-book. There are six more chapters and five exercises (both serious and fun ones) you can easily do at home to discover your own values. To see the full table of contents, visit the Personal Core Values mini site.
