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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.
Accountability
Accuracy
Achievement
Adventurousness
Altruism
Ambition
Assertiveness
Balance
Being the best
Belonging
Boldness
Calmness
Carefulness
Challenge
Cheerfulness
Clear-mindedness
Commitment
Community
Compassion
Competitiveness
Consistency
Contentment
Continuous Improvement
Contribution
Control
Cooperation
Correctness
Courtesy
Creativity
Curiosity
Decisiveness
Democraticness
Dependability
Determination
Devoutness
Diligence
Discipline
Discretion
Diversity
Dynamism
Economy
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Elegance
Empathy
Enjoyment
Enthusiasm
Equality
Excellence
Excitement
Expertise
Exploration
Expressiveness
Fairness
Faith
Family-orientedness
Fidelity
Fitness
Fluency
Focus
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Goodness
Grace
Growth
Happiness
Hard Work
Health
Helping Society
Holiness
Honesty
Honour
Humility
Independence
Ingenuity
Inner Harmony
Inquisitiveness
Insightfulness
Intelligence
Intellectual Status
Intuition
Joy
Justice
Leadership
Legacy
Love
Loyalty
Making a difference
Mastery
Merit
Obedience
Openness
Order
Originality
Patriotism
Perfection
Piety
Positivity
Practicality
Preparedness
Professionalism
Prudence
Quality-orientation
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Restraint
Results-oriented
Rigor
Security
Self-actualization
Self-control
Selflessness
Self-reliance
Sensitivity
Serenity
Service
Shrewdness
Simplicity
Soundness
Speed
Spontaneity
Stability
Strategic
Strength
Structure
Success
Support
Teamwork
Temperance
Thankfulness
Thoroughness
Thoughtfulness
Timeliness
Tolerance
Traditionalism
Trustworthiness
Truth-seeking
Understanding
Uniqueness
Unity
Usefulness
Vision
Vitality
Taken from: https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values
Step 6: Write a small goal to honour one of your top values.
For example, if family-orientedness is one of your top values and you haven’t spent much time with your family lately, create a goal of doing something with your family each week. Over time create a goal for each one of your top values, starting with the values that are most important to you. Start small and each time you accomplish one of these value goals, “Up the Game”, by creating a larger goal. You will discover that by creating goals around your values, you will be pulled towards these goals – making these goals desirable and fun so that you want to achieve them.
What is the purpose?
To create an ultimate goal that will honour your most important self and your core values, for example choosing a career path that includes the top 5 things that will leave you happy, proud and fulfilled.
If family-orientedness, freedom, making a difference, leadership and wealth are your top 5 values, you would start making everyday choices that are in line with these values and the goals that you have set for them. You would also start saying no to some other options that are not in line with these values so that you will be able to focus your time, money and energy on what is really important to you. You will with time, for example, come up with a career path that gives you the freedom to be close to your family, yet at the same time allows you to lead and make a difference in an area that is important to you.
By following through you would not only start valuing yourself more but your newfound focus and energy will enable you to put your full-throttle value out into the world, creating value for others and wealth for all.
Remember, that action is key! If you are not prepared to do what it takes, it is simple; you will not get the value.
Let us not look for reasons why we can’t do something, but let us rather ask the question: How can we make it possible?
Happy value hunting!
Article by Jackie Brand, BMT College
References
MindTools. (n.d). “What are your values?”: Deciding what is important in life. Emerald Works Limited. https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values
Northrup, K. (2013). Money a love story: Untangle your financial woes and create the life you really want. Hay House Inc.
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