VALUE yourself!

Did you know that where you are today is a direct result of how much you value yourself?

The amount of success or money coming your way is dependent on how much you value yourself and how much value you are putting out into the world.

Money only exists where there is value. If you want to make money, you need to create value and this process has to start with yourself.

If you do not value yourself, you will not be able to put your full-throttle self out into this world and this lack of self-value will surely reflect on your financial matters.

So let’s begin the journey of self-discovery. What do you value and how can you create more value for yourself and others in this world?

What does valuing yourself mean?

To start with, people who value themselves take care of themselves.  Taking care of yourself does not only mean getting up early in the morning to plan your outfit, putting on make-up and looking like you just stepped out of a salon. Sure, physical appearance is important and it’s a great way to value yourself, especially if you’ve been feeling down in the slumps lately. After all, if you look great you will feel great!

Taking care of yourself also means knowing what is important to you and how you will spend your time, money and energy. In other words, knowing what you value and focusing all your energy only on what you value, will naturally make you feel more valuable! Does this make sense? To demonstrate this point, let’s look at the following example:

Instead of looking at saving your money as depriving yourself of that expensive haircut or having dinner with a group of friends that you weren’t really interested in attending in the first place, look at saving money as taking care of yourself, says Kate Northrup (2013), author of the book “Money a Love Story”. Maybe the money that you saved can now be used to pay for a qualification that you thought you couldn’t afford… Maybe that qualification is what gets you the promotion that you really wanted or provides you with the necessary skills to start up your own business…? Now, what do you value most? The expensive haircut, a dinner that you didn’t really want to attend OR the promotion?

As soon as your life starts to reflect what you truly value and enjoy having in your life, your self-worth will increase and you will start to add value not only to yourself but also to others in the world.

Here is the really BIG question!

How much of the life that you are living right now truly reflects what you value most? Not much…? Do you know what you value most in life? Not sure…?

Don’t stress, I am here to guide you through the journey as I discovered a great tool to steer us in the right direction (MindTools, n.d).

First, you need to define what you truly value. A good way to start doing this is by looking back on your life. Identify when you felt really good and when you were really confident that you were making good choices. I recommend that you get a small pocket-size booklet in which you can answer the questions under each step below. I know this is work, but make it fun! The value that you will get from completing this exercise will make it well worth the effort!

You need to complete all the steps both for your personal as well as your professional life.

Step 1: Identify when you were the happiest in your life.

• What were you doing?
• Were you with other people? Who?
• What other factors contributed to your happiness?

Step 2: Identify the times that you were most proud of.

• Why were you proud?
• Did other people share in your pride? Who?
• What other factors contributed to your pride?

Step 3: Identify the times that you were most fulfilled and satisfied.

• What need or desire was fulfilled?
• How or why did the experience give your life meaning?
• What other factors contributed to your feelings of fulfilment?

Step 4: Determine your top 10 values.

Base your values on your experiences of happiness, pride and fulfilment.  Use the list of common personal values below to help you get started and then add your own. You might find that some of the values go together, for example, adventurousness and fun – combine them as one value.

Step 5: Prioritise your values.

Prioritise your values with number 1 being the most important to you and number 10 being the least important. This is probably the most difficult step and you will need to dig deep within yourself. Make sure that your top values are something that you are proud of and that makes you happy.