Going for Your Goals: Values

This week we're going to take a look at our values. You may be wondering what our values have to do with defining our goals and making plans to get to them. Well, values define who we are as a person so when we have a clear understanding about what our values are, it helps us take more precise steps and actions to get to our goals.

According to Brian Tracy, author of Goals: How to Get Everything You Want there are several layers that make up our personality.

1. Our values determine our beliefs
2. Our beliefs determine our expectations
3. Our expectations determine our attitude
4. Our attitude determines our actions

The common thread here is that if you have positive values such as kindness, love, and generosity your beliefs will guide you to treat people with kindness. love and generosity. If you have positive values you will believe positive things about yourself and others, and will expect good things to happen. Our attitudes are our outward expression of our values, beliefs and expectations so anyone with a positive attitude treats others and themselves in a positive way, has a more positive outlook on life, and is generally more optimistic and successful.

When we live outside our values and our goals go against our values we tend to develop negative attitudes, act out negatively, have uncertainty and unhappiness. When we live in alignment with our values we tend to feel more positive, act in a positive manner, are more certain of ourselves and have a sense of happiness. This is why it's important for us to determine our values so we can structure our goals in alignment with our values.

I think I just heard an "aha" moment from everyone. I know I had one when I first read this.

We've got some homework today. I'd love for each of us to go to http://www.values.com/your_billboards and check out some of the billboards that people have created for themselves. Then create your own billboard! Anything you want! Get inspired by some of the others that people have posted and go for it!