Making the Essential Enjoyable & Easy
Making Monday
I've heard it said that how we feel on Mondays is one of the clearest indicators of life satisfaction. Here is a quick thought on how to make Monday—and every day—work better...
The Importance of Importance
Values clarification is part of most systems of personal development and organizational change.
You've probably been through the routine of brainstorming a list of values on a flipchart then prioritizing them to get to core values for guiding decisions, and so on.
To be clear, I'm not knocking that process. ANYTHING that gets us individually or collectively to look inward and articulate something about what we see is useful.
But I've noticed we tend to take that resulting list, file it away or post it on a wall, then get on with our lives, business as usual.
I find it more helpful to see values as a subset of beliefs.
This makes them less abstract and more actionable.
To say something is a value of mine is to say I believe this quality or characteristic or principle is important to me.
By “important” I mean of great significance and consequence.
And when I own the belief and frame the value this way, action becomes the inevitable next step:
• I believe health is important [of great significance and consequence], so I…
• I believe empathy is important, so I…
• I believe prosperity is important, so I…
We can even take this belief/value frame and apply it to how we organize our schedule and allocate our energy:
• I believe _____ is important this month, so I will…
• I believe _____ is important today, so I will…
• I believe _____ is important this hour, so I will…
Stating the belief of importance behind our values animates them, bringing them to life.
This gets our values off a list and into our hands and feet.
Together, let's end the fight to change—
Delmar
