Living your life 'in integrity' means that your words
match your actions which match your beliefs. When you are
living your life in harmony with your values, you naturally
have more energy. Clarifying what really matters to you,
knowing what you stand for, will set you free to live life
to its fullest potential.
1. If you don't know who you are, you can't be true to
your self.
Sounds obvious, but many of us go through life without
taking the time to identify what truly matters to us.
2. It makes decision-making easier.
When faced with a decision, look at your choices in light of
your values. How does each choice support you in living
your values? If both support your values, which value does
it support? And which of those values is more important to
you? Makes it easy, doesn't it?
3. It helps you identify people, situations and things that
don't support those values.
Sometimes people, situations or things don't make us
comfortable. Very often, the negative emotions they evoke
are caused by a value being threatened. Without
understanding that, and without knowing which value they
threaten, we use valuable energy defending or protecting
ourselves. If you have a strong need to be true to
yourself, look around. What situations evoke those
feelings? In my experience, we only have a strong need to
be true to ourselves when we're not being true to
ourselves. The rest of the time, we just are.
4. It helps you identify people, situations and things you
do want in your life.
Being clear about what your values are allows you to
proactively seek the people, situations and things that
support those values. That gives you the freedom to replace
the items you identified in Step 3. It puts you in charge
of your life.
5. It gives you an incredible sense of peace.
Clarifying your values and then living your life in harmony
with those values provides you with an inner peace and
tranquility that allows you to move confidently through
life.
6. It allows you to stop reacting, and start responding.
Whether we've identified our values or not, we always know
when we're not being true to ourselves. This often creates
a vague sense of uneasiness and we react defensively. When
we are clear about what our values are, we respond to such
events with clarity and we do it quickly!
7. It's a great yardstick for creating goals [and it's
easier to achieve goals that are based on values].
When a goal is in harmony with your values, the natural
energy around it provides a momentum that allows you to
take the necessary action 'without effort'.
8. It allows you to get rid of goals that aren't really
yours.
Take a close look at the goals that have been around for a
long time. You may find that they're really things you
feel you 'should' want. Let them go. The guilt associated
with not working on these goals is wasting energy you could
be using to achieve what you really want.
9. It allows you to be very clear about the standards you
set for yourself.
Standards are behavior that we establish for ourselves. They
are the expression of our values in every day life.
10. It allows you to be very clear about the boundaries you
need to establish for others' behavior.
Boundaries are what other people cannot do to or around you.
The behavior that is least acceptable to you is that which
violates your values. Clarity around your values allows
establishing and enforcing boundaries to be painless.
You're not trying to change people, you're just clear
about the behavior that's acceptable around you.
If you'd like an inventory in PDF format (readable by Adobe
Acrobat Reader) to help you identify your core values,
please send a blank email to at
values@touchpointcoaching.com About the Author
(c) Louise Morganti Kaelin. Louise is a Life Success Coach
who partners with individuals who are READY (to live their
best life), WILLING (to explore all options) and ABLE (to
accept total support). Find many free resources to assist
you in living the life of your dreams at
http://www.touchpointcoaching.com For her free newsletter
of insightful, practical suggestions for creating your best
life, email mailto:on-536@ezezine.com