Benefits of Living by Your Values

Have you ever gotten upset when your lifestyle is unaligned with your dreams? Is it frustrating that your schedule evolves more around work and the kids?

In this blog, I get to share the benefits of living by our values and how we can apply them one day at a time, even for 15 minutes or less.

As often mentioned in our blog, repetition is the mother of learning. And one thing that I get to remind myself of daily is my values. In our product, the Journer (journal and planner in one), you can have fun landing on your value per season. If you're anything like me, seasons change, people change. Can you hear that 80's song?

I get to apply my values every season.

First, let us define what I mean by Value: It is what you believe and holds to be important. Whether you have used the word "value" or not, our unique internal guides influence our thoughts and actions.

This guidance also reflects our contribution to Humanity.

Some of the questions that helped me identify my values were reflecting on how I make decisions, who I look up to, and what I consume daily. If you are looking for a list of value examples, I highly recommend the book, "Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown.

Brene Brown has studied courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy for decades. And these topics are rooted in self-responsibility, making Brene my favorite Texan! Her list of values is beneficial, as she and her team have done all the homework to help us put a name on the values we live by. You can find the link to her list here.

And I have good news!

You get a chance to explore. There are NO wrong answers here. Take this as your exploration time. I have given myself grace and compassion to identify my values with intention. I started using Brene's list by putting a dot next to my top 10, then underlining my top 5. And remember, you make up your #, so if it's 6 or 7, good!

This exercise is your discovery process.

The Journer is a 90-day (3-month) journal and planner with the intention of reflection. And I have added the Values section to encourage you to use it as your sketch. I know you're an artist and designer, and sometimes we draw our values.

Get ready to get your hands dirty!

For most of my life, I have been hardcore with my self-improvement, and I have pressured myself to get it "right" as soon as possible. And I'm learning that this approach has taken away all the fun from the word - discovery. Do you remember getting your hands dirty in pre-k or elementary school?

Do you remember how fun that was?

And what made it even more fun was showing it to my grandfather, who would celebrate anything I brought home. As we grow wiser, we see the bigger picture and the steps to achieve the end goal. And the one thing my grandpa wanted was to build my confidence. Papa Juan was right!

The Progress of my work was the builder of my confidence

So before you're tempted to say, lucky you, Patty! No one believes in me. I have good news for you. In my Journer, you get to "hang/post" you're own drawing. And as a result, you get to build your confidence with the Progress you make in your 90-day season of reflection.

What would happen if your confidence went up 30%?

Self-esteem is a wrinkling process of trial and error. Like a sweet and potent song or poem that takes re-writing over and over again. Like a flower that needs dirt (soil) to grow. And like all of us that tumbled and fell before we knew how to walk. 

Mistakes are part of our process.

We get to experience the lessons and learn from them. I retain my personal experience more than someone else's. These mistakes become lessons. The lessons are what I see as our guides and our values. What do I mean by that? Maybe you got hurt by someone close to you and promised never to do that or do something opposite. An example:

"Being lied to betrays my trust; I will be transparent and honest."

Taking the time to reflect on these lessons, or even reflect at all, keep us aware of our responsibilities. When we continue to blame people, circumstances, and situations, it keeps us as the victim. And remaining a victim is a way to be unaligned from our values and be dissatisfied with our lifestyle.

Unaligned and unharmonized with our purpose.

This turmoil of wanting a particular lifestyle, and the inability to align your lifestyle with your values, can create chaos in your mind, leading to a life of guilt and shame. So, my friend, the benefit of discovering your values is on the other side of the coin. The opposite of guilt and shame is freedom. The freedom of knowing your values!

Chaos's worst enemy is Consistency.

And as we started this blog, repetition is the mother of learning. Identifying and seeing our values every day can make all the difference. Have you downloaded Brene Brown's list yet? Choose the values that call you and align with what you consider important because you role model them in your lifestyle.

Commit to this process for 15 minutes a day.

This 15 minutes can start by applying my suggested exercise with Brene's list by narrowing it down to 5 values (or 6/7) and choosing one simultaneously as experimentation. So I did with the first one to draw examples of what it looks like in my life and how I have been guided by them growing up. Stay open to the ones calling your attention at this point in your life.

Focus on the values that have led you to who you are now.

As I mentioned, I'm still in the discovery process because I want to stay as a white belt student - a beginner's attitude full of curiosity. Now, I have done the exercise above myself and started with the values that still serve me as guides—integrity, connection, perseverance, freedom, and wisdom.

The beauty of the process was narrowing it down.

Narrowing things down helps us with the process of prioritizing. Putting a dot to my top 10 was fun; reflection helped me narrow it down to five. So I put it through the process of choosing one of them and kept it for a week. My week's challenge was to write a sentence about the value. What does it look like for me? 

Integrity is being honest with myself and embracing my true colors.

Integrity shows up in my vulnerability to do what is right, go first, and take risks for what I believe is true. I take my 15 minutes of brainstorming, drawing, and reflecting seriously because I rather have order than chaos. Reflection keeps us in touch with our reality instead of rules to live.

Have fun with this process!

Writing (drawing) keeps the value on top of your mind, and I can assure you that it shows up in your day, with work, with your children, with your team, etc. This exercise is why a week is a minimum. You get to "season it" like your November turkey. My mom would let that turkey sit in the fridge absorbing the seasonings for at least one day, sometimes more!

Consistency is how it shows up in your lifestyle.

Reading your values reminds you of how you're wired and make decisions, which at the end of the road, helps build your confidence. The belief in your Progress because you are applying it to your life in a fun and creative way every single day. 

Value-driven days also keep you grounded.

Identifying my Integrity value helps me stay true to myself above the lies and the insecurities of others. This process helps me understand myself better. Now, do I fall short? Of course, I do. However, when I'm focused on this value, it helps me keep calmer. And recently, I have been experiencing racism against me, which has helped me stay my ground and value in the long term.

It's part of affirming myself with thick roots.

And remember that trees take years to grow. Stay grounded, my friend, by staying consistent with the values you experiment with this year, 2023. Get in touch with your roots through the power of writing and drawing. Reflection is the secret tool to productivity because it is a forward movement from experimentation. As mentioned before, writing it down keeps it in front of mind.

See how it unfolds and reveals in your day!

In recap, put a name to your values, your guides. Identify your top 5, and apply each one for at least a week in our Journer or your favorite journal. If you want to know more about our product, the Journer, send me a message/email. I will be raffling a Journer soon to those who participate in our survey.

As always, please help us grow our blog by sharing this blog with a friend or on social media (@ysuperstars)

Love,

Me