How to Implement and Stay Connected to Your Values
One of the challenges people have around goal setting is when their goals are not in alignment with their values. If you’ve ever achieved a goal but didn’t feel satisfied or content, it might have something to do with your values or beliefs.
I remember my very first job out of college. Although my background was in accounting and finance, I accepted a sales position with an industrial chemical company. The position paid well, and I thought sales would be a good skill to develop in the marketplace.
That experience was probably the fastest lesson I ever learned about goals being incongruent with values. While I wanted to find work that I loved to do and was good at (values), I was lured by an opportunity to earn money to start paying off my student loans (goal).
I felt the disconnect immediately and, after about six months, left my career in sales to find something more suited to my skill set.
The world is a little crazy right now, and I think more people than ever are questioning how they’re investing their precious time. The Great Resignation is an illustration of this. Perhaps, on one hand, people are questioning whether they’re in the right occupation, like I did with my first job out of college.
Too, I think people are realizing that money is a goal, but not a value, and that things like quality time with the people closest to them is what really matters.
Don’t get me wrong. Food, shelter, and security for our families is also very important, and money is required to provide those basic necessities.
When was the last time you paused to evaluate whether or not you’re connected to your values? When was the last time you compared your goals – and the direction of your life – to your core values?
Staying connected to your values requires periodic evaluation of the direction of your life. Just as an airplane is not ever perfectly on course (but rather adjusts direction constantly), so too must we evaluate to make sure our lives are on course. We don’t have to do it as often as a plane, but we ought to do it periodically.
Here are a few ways to implement and stay connected to your values:
1. Know your values
If you haven’t ever identified your values, then it shouldn’t surprise you when they’re not in alignment with your goals. Getting clear about your values is the first step to staying connected to them.
Read my previous article, How to Identify Your Values and Beliefs, and work through the exercises in the article.
2. Determine areas that are out of alignment
As you think about how you’re living your life, evaluate whether any areas are out of alignment. Which areas (if any) are in conflict? Where are you unsettled? Where are you stuck? What’s frustrating you?
Your responses to these questions might provide clues about areas that are out of alignment.
3. Decide what needs to change
Once you’ve identified the conflict or frustration, think about what has to happen to move into alignment with your values.
What do you need to do more of?
What do you need to do less of?
What do you need to start doing?
What do you need to stop doing?
4. Create an action plan
After you have clarity about how to move into alignment with your values, the next step is to take action to create congruency. This might be something you can do very quickly but, more than likely, it will require concerted action over time.
This important part is not the speed of your action, but rather the consistency. Consistent action over time is what will move you in the direction of your values, thereby creating an increased sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Investing the time to examine and reflect on your values is a beneficial exercise that will not only help you achieve your goals, but will assist you in focusing on what really matters to you.
Check in with yourself periodically to make sure you’re honoring your values, and living your best life.
