“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” Roy E. Disney

Getting to know you is like making best friends with your true self and in last Monday’s Morning Motivation I offered you a way to uncover what matters to you the most and find out what your values are in life. Today I’ll give you tips on how to apply them in your daily life so you can start to skip along your path in life, happy in the knowledge that you’re on the right track.

Remind yourself daily of what your values are that you uncovered last week, those special feelings that give your life meaning. If you find you have a long list then group some of them together under main headings as you often find that a number of values can be represented by just one or two words. Once you have grouped them together you should be able to narrow down your values into 3 to 5 groups with the heading for each group representing what really means the most to you.  Then next time you need to make a decision, follow these simple steps:

1. Stop and take a breath to clear your mind and become present in the moment.
2. Ask yourself what it is you really want, does what you want align with your values?
3. What can you do or say in that moment that is born from your values, from who you really are?

By becoming more of who you truly are you release the burden of being who everyone else wants you to be and just end up being yourself. As a result, you become more confident, happier and more fulfilled.

 

So start your week this week enjoying being you!

Getting To Know You

Do you know that many people reach their final years regretting not living a life where they were true to themselves, living instead a life based on what other people expected of them.

We also spend so much time on autopilot where we fall into automatic patterns of thought and behaviour that we disconnect with our true selves. When you run your life in this mode it can often feel like something is missing, you may feel empty or simply unhappy without really knowing why. This is why getting to know your true self is so important and discovering your values is an essential

part of this.

By knowing your values you get to know what matters to you and when you are functioning in alignment with them, your life feels different as you feel more confident in your decisions, you feel happier and more fulfilled.

So how do you figure out what your values are?

First take a deep breath and clear your mind, then think of a time when you felt unbelievably happy, vibrant and confident. Think about what it was that felt so special to you in that moment; was it a loving feeling? Was it because you applied yourself fully to achieve something and you did it? What was it? Write down the words that come to mind that best represent the special feeling you experienced then repeat this exercise to get more words and more feelings. You will hopefully find words such as being kind or loving, being honest, giving 100% to what you do and so on. Make sure you use your own words that best describe your feelings. When you have found what moved you, you will have found what matters most to you and these are your values.

Next Monday’s Morning Motivation will explore how to live according to your values.

"To Thine Own Self Be True" William Shakespeare

Was it your decision … be honest, was it?

Whatever ‘it’ in this question was, quite often we make decisions based on what we think we should be doing rather than being honest about what we truly want. For a lot of the time, we try to do what pleases someone else rather than being honest with ourselves about what we actually want, which not only impacts on our behaviour but also on who we become.

Being who you really are will provide you with so much relief that you will feel like a weight has been lifted as you follow your authentic self. In so doing, rather than upsetting anyone else, making choices that come from who you genuinely are will allow your relationships with others to flourish. This is because your decisions and your behaviours will be based on your own truth rather than on someone who you think someone else wants you to be – which is not the real you.

You know deep down what makes you happy. Just because you’ve been ignoring your gut feeling it hasn’t gone away so next time you need to make a decision stop for a moment and dig deep inside yourself to get a sense of what feels right to you. Start to really get to know what matters to you and act on it. Be true to yourself and you’ll be much happier for it.


Next Monday's Morning Motivation will help you get to know yourself better! 

“Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” Eleanor Brownn

Too busy to have any time for yourself?

If you think don’t think you have time for you, then think of someone you love or care for, how would you treat them? Would you constantly ignore their needs or would you be attentive towards them? By the same token would you want them to take good care of themselves before taking care of you?

The love and attention you would give to someone you care deeply for is how you should be treating yourself. Start by thinking about an act of kindness you could do for just for you. It doesn’t need to cost anything but it should be something where the focus is totally on you and your needs.

Even if it’s just taking 5 minutes to enjoy a hot drink, read a book or maybe listen to music, just having that small window of time to focus on you and do something that only you want to do is as important as everything else you fill your day doing. By treating yourself with kindness you give yourself permission to be happy and to forget everything else that is going on in your life if only for a short moment in time. It’s also likely that all the people you care about would be relieved to know that you’re taking good care of yourself too.

You cannot pour from an empty vessel so give yourself time to recharge, refresh and relax so that you’ll be in a better position to give that much more to those who matter to you the most.