As 2020 begins, I’m reflecting on my values and how crucial they are in being a great husband, father, son, having a transformational career and an overall effective human being!
Here are several of my core values and what they mean to me:
Compassion: Truly connecting with others means giving up judgment of myself. Any lack of compassion on my part comes from my own insecurities. I’ve learned to listen to other’s communication not for the words they express, but the meaning behind them. Instead of responding out of judgment, out of me being right and them being wrong, I’ve learned to inquire. I CAN have authentic compassion for people and situations I even vehemently disagree with allowing me to deeply connect with anyone.
Courage: Allowing myself to be truly vulnerable takes giving up judgment of what I fear the most. The times I’ve taken on my own personal deep-seated fears head on is when I’ve achieved the greatest growth. Taking my fears along for the ride and I do what I fear regardless over and over, eventually realizing what I fear the most is what I was always meant to do. It’s all too comfortable to stick with what I know, even if that is doing a terrible job of serving myself or others around me. Being comfortable with vulnerability and not judging my fear allows me the joy of be fully self-expressed and fully contributing to others.
Passion: Never, ever settling for easy when there is an open path for inspiration. Always striving for the opportunity to inspire and contribute to others. An unrelenting drive in displaying a full commitment to each and every value I’ve listed when working on a single task. “Compassion, contribution, courage, passion, creativity, and responsibility.”
Creativity: I give up all labels of who I am in the past, present and future, I give up the concept of expectations, I give up the concept of limitations, I give up the concept of perfectionism. None of these things actually exist and they all hold back access to deep creativity. In letting go of ALL judgment, I allow myself to discover new ways of being that were not available before. Once I am in the space of ‘nothing’ and simply being with the world vs attempting to intellectualize it, I see ‘nothing’ actually contains everything that is possible.
Responsibility: I am the sole creator of how my life goes and everything that is generated from it. Once I started to live this way, so many aspects of my life transformed from struggle, disconnect, frustration into love, connection, and a beautiful harmony I didn’t know was possible. I am solely responsible for how people communicate to me. My own interpretation of the words I speak are irrelevant. All that matters is how the people I’m speaking to are interpreting me. I am solely responsible for my own misgivings, my own fears, frustrations, joy and happiness – no one else. I have a choice in how everything occurs to me and in that choice, I have the opportunity to take full responsibility for every aspect of my life.
Even though I often falter in the face of fear, ego, or even laziness. I have more moments of self-realization, observing the fear and ego without judging myself, shifting into the presence of harmony and unity with my core values. Bringing my core values to everything I do directly correlates with my effectiveness as a human being giving me purpose, hope, love, connection, compassion, and contribution.