Living According to Your Highest Values makes Success Effortless

I often wrestle with the question why, when I work with a group of people, only a small percentage actually take the material and use it to make positive changes in their lives. This is a question I know has astounded most personal development teachers for many years. I recently offered an inspirational talk to a group of 90 employees from a large corporate in South Africa. They were a really special inspired bunch of people, who I thought would benefit from some additional work after the event. As we were nearing the end of the year and everyone in the group was excited about discovering their purpose, refining their vision, setting a few meaningful goals, building an effective action plan for the New Year and finally turning 2012 into their best year ever. I offered them access to my weekly personal development system, at no charge, to help them with the process of creating a great foundation for building success in 2012.

The entire group raved at the simplicity and effectiveness of the system. Only five people out of 90 have signed up for the program. These five folks have used the system and have built a really fantastic foundation, for creating meaning and success in their lives in 2012 and beyond. I know they are all going to have really fantastic years, filled with meaning, where they are finally going to reach the end of this year, having finally moved their lives in the direction they want to go. The other 85 people are just going to coast through another year and once again blame the economy or interest rates or the President for their lack of progress. I want to share some of my ideas around human behaviour, which may help you to unlock your mind, so that you can finally become part of the group of five people, who will do what it takes this year, to make a difference in their lives. Rather than remaining trapped in the group of 85, who want progress, but won’t make any changes in their lives to make it happen for them.

What do you Value:

You have a hierarchy in your life around what you value. There are areas in your life where you have a greater desire to have fulfilment in than others. This means that these areas have more meaning and importance to you. These values or concepts around what is important to you shift throughout your life. When you are very young, you may have found perfecting a video game really important or as a teenager your appearance may have become really important because you wanted attention. As you moved into your 20’s, your focus may have shifted to building meaningful long term relationships, your 30’s could see you focus on your career or business and in your 40’s you once again shifted and placed more importance on wealth and vitality.

As we progress through all the stages in our lives we have things, which we perceive to be more important than others. These needs create voids in our lives, which we want to be filled. The word fulfilment, which so many of us want in our lives but find so difficult to achieve, means filling the void, which your mind has found in your life. In very simplistic terms, everything that you think is missing or you perceive as incomplete in your life, will make you feel incomplete and un-fulfilled. If you are in your 20’s and building meaningful, long-term relationships really matters, you will put all your energy into searching for and finding just that.

 Everything that you feel is missing from your life, is something that you will consciously and unconsciously keep moving towards, until you fill the void. The amount of fulfilment you get from your life is directly proportional to how well you manage to fill these voids. Ok, so we have values, which are important to us and until these are satisfied we never feel fulfilled. What has that got to do with finally giving us the reason why some people do what it takes and others don’t?  

The reason most people never reach that wonderful place called fulfilment is that they subordinate themselves to other people and instead of living according to their own highest values; they inject the values of these people into their lives. This sees people sacrifice all the things, which are really important to them, as they try to live up to someone else’s values. This means that we try to live our lives according to our parent’s, mentors or some other influential person’s values, someone other than our own. The reason I believe that we do this is because we, never take the time to consciously discover our true purpose and then develop a vision to guide us to keep moving in that direction.

If you want to break free from the prison of a humdrum life, stop minimising yourself in relation to others and start living according to your own higher values. This will eliminate all the internal conflict, where you are striving to be something you don’t want to be and allow you to start living in alignment with what really matters to you. Once you are living according to your own highest values, staying focused will become effortless and everything you do, which is aligned with this, will feel right.

The secret to turn your efforts into meaning and sustainable success is to discover what really matters to you and then to work towards achieving that. Every time you set a goal, which is not aligned with your highest values, you will need to be motivated by some external factor and will eventually lose interest and stop before you achieve the goal. I cannot stress the importance enough, of discovering your purpose and highest values. Living in alignment with these will feel perfect and completely fulfilling.

Action Idea: Find some quiet time every day, until you have uncovered you have discovered the answer you need and explore your purpose and highest values. Ask yourself these questions outlined below and try to uncover your purpose and highest values.

·         If you had all your financial needs taken care of, what would you do with your life?

·         What do you enjoy most about your life?

·         When are you the happiest, what are you doing?

·         Who makes you the happiest, why?

·         What do you feel the most passionate about?

·         When are you the happiest?

·         What do you visualise yourself having, doing and being, which will give you the most satisfaction?

When answering these questions allow your mind the freedom to travel anywhere it wants. Don’t restrict yourself at all; no idea or concept is impossible. Allow your mind to walk unfettered by logic, allow it to run freely through all the possibilities, which are available to you.

Explore all your answers and see if there is a common thread, which appears. This will allow you to clarify your values and purpose. Keep massaging this understanding, until it feel right and is aligned with your inner self. Keep exploring this concept until you have uncovered your highest values. Equipped with this knowledge you will begin living an amazing life, filled with joy, fulfilment and your unique concept of success.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za