| Don’t tell me what you value most, I can already see.
There is often this game we play with ourselves where we spew our aspirational values and live out a whole separate list of true values. We talk about family, friends, health, people, etc. and live out work, money, rankings and championships.
Now to be fair, we can have several values that might not be in our top three but they are in the top ten and during seasons of our lives/year, that thing gets more attention.
I am not looking at this from a narrow lens but rather a wide lens. I am not throwing this concept out for you to focus on this past weekend but rather the past 12 months.
I am also not throwing this out to heap guilt or shame on anyone.
Rather, I throw out this idea for each of us to really look at what our lives say we value as opposed to what our rational mind says we value.
Another Application
This also applies to leaders and their organization, program, or department. When we say we value X, Y, and Z, and yet live out the values of A, B, and C we lose influence and trust. We are essentially leading in an inauthentic way.
Questions to Wrestle With
+ What are my stated values?
+ Do those line up with my lived values?
+ If no, what needs to change?
+ How do I make sure that my top three or four values do not get crowded out by my 8th, 9th, and 10th values? |
