"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." --Proverbs 3:5-6
"Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." --Ayn Rand
For me, my Faith in God eases my path daily. Inevitably each of us will face challenges en route to achieving our aims, but I have always believed that we are strengthened to overcome those challenges when we have named and embraced our Core Values. As we approach the November election, living our Values and our Faith in all of our daily actions remains imperative.
The courage to live our core values must eminate consistently from within, lest we habitually subsume our core values to society's expectations. The elected officials and corporate executives I admire most consistently live values-driven lives. Their power springs forth from genuine Faith and Knowledge, discerning right from wrong even when the simpler, more popular path might provide immediate gratification.
Leaders--of families, of businesses, of schools, of elected bodies--adhere to their values and remain aware of the guideposts provided by God in all matters. Parents provide discipline even when giving in to a child's demands might appear easier. Executives strategically plan for the future even when satisfying the public's appetite for glowing quarterly financial results might garner more favorable press.
True happiness lies not in today's perceived victory but in every day's genuine victory. Be not afraid to rely upon your Faith, to prayerfully go to your God for guidance, to act upon your core values, for at the end of the evening you will be able to lay your head upon the pillow for deep and peaceful rest. Your victory must also be God's victory for His people.
TODAY'S QUESTION: As YOU approach the November election, have YOU gone to the Lord in prayer regarding your strategy, your objectives, and your concerns?
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
VALUES-DRIVEN LIFE
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." ~Oscar Wilde
"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." ~William Shakespeare
Doris and I worked through several productive sessions as we plumbed her history to identify and dismantle the notions of "must", "have to", and "everyone does" that typify the externally-imposed value systems of those we modeled as we grew and matured.
Every one of us, whether we consciously identify and manage it or not, has a list of values that drive us toward certain behaviors and situations. Likewise, each of us has a list of values that drive us away from certain behaviors and situations. Doris also came to realize that while we each have a list of aspirational values that drive us toward our fully lived Life, habit and perceived necessity often work to override our aspirational values. We find ourselves climbing the ladder only to learn it was leaning against the wrong tree.
While love, integrity, commitment, family, achievement, and balance appeared on her list as she worked to identify the Life she intended to fully live, Doris also conceded that external expectations as well as her internal desire to please others had led her to live out the values of deference, control, independence, intensity, obedience, and significance. Let me be very clear: every individual can choose to live a full Life by the values most appropriate to him/her. It is not for I or any other individual to tell YOU what values YOU should choose to guide YOU how you should order them to achieve the fully lived Life. But, be absolutely certain that you are the architect of your own values system, and not that you are the laborer driven by someone else's values system.
I coach individuals and groups of varying sizes. Over time I have repeatedly encountered two commonly-observed causes of living out of congruence with one's own identified values list: (a) real or perceived financial obligations that no longer apply; and (b) fear of disapproval by persons perceived to have authority over us. Please note that both of those causes refer to perceptions that individuals may hold. Perception will lose its power over you once you bring it into the bright light cast by your own self-chosen values list.
I've long shared the guiding principle with my clients, "If you fail to consciously choose, then you succumb to the choices of others..." We will each be driven by values, so let us commit to living our own highest values, not those we believe someone or "society" expects us to have.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Have YOU committed to fully live your Life by your highest values...or are YOU continuing to live the life that YOU perceive and believe that others expect YOU to live?
Write the top 10 values that are habitually driving your daily routine.
Pause.
Then write the top 10 values that you are committed to adopting to fully live the Life of your own making.
We will then build from there together.
"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." ~William Shakespeare
Doris and I worked through several productive sessions as we plumbed her history to identify and dismantle the notions of "must", "have to", and "everyone does" that typify the externally-imposed value systems of those we modeled as we grew and matured.
Every one of us, whether we consciously identify and manage it or not, has a list of values that drive us toward certain behaviors and situations. Likewise, each of us has a list of values that drive us away from certain behaviors and situations. Doris also came to realize that while we each have a list of aspirational values that drive us toward our fully lived Life, habit and perceived necessity often work to override our aspirational values. We find ourselves climbing the ladder only to learn it was leaning against the wrong tree.
While love, integrity, commitment, family, achievement, and balance appeared on her list as she worked to identify the Life she intended to fully live, Doris also conceded that external expectations as well as her internal desire to please others had led her to live out the values of deference, control, independence, intensity, obedience, and significance. Let me be very clear: every individual can choose to live a full Life by the values most appropriate to him/her. It is not for I or any other individual to tell YOU what values YOU should choose to guide YOU how you should order them to achieve the fully lived Life. But, be absolutely certain that you are the architect of your own values system, and not that you are the laborer driven by someone else's values system.
I coach individuals and groups of varying sizes. Over time I have repeatedly encountered two commonly-observed causes of living out of congruence with one's own identified values list: (a) real or perceived financial obligations that no longer apply; and (b) fear of disapproval by persons perceived to have authority over us. Please note that both of those causes refer to perceptions that individuals may hold. Perception will lose its power over you once you bring it into the bright light cast by your own self-chosen values list.
I've long shared the guiding principle with my clients, "If you fail to consciously choose, then you succumb to the choices of others..." We will each be driven by values, so let us commit to living our own highest values, not those we believe someone or "society" expects us to have.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Have YOU committed to fully live your Life by your highest values...or are YOU continuing to live the life that YOU perceive and believe that others expect YOU to live?
Write the top 10 values that are habitually driving your daily routine.
Pause.
Then write the top 10 values that you are committed to adopting to fully live the Life of your own making.
We will then build from there together.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
REDISCOVERY OF COMMON SENSE
"But I never thought it was my style or the words I used...It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation - from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery...of our values and our common sense..."
- Ronald Reagan: Farewell Address, Oval Office, January 11, 1989
Values and common sense are not partisan themes, but instead represent intergenerational principles that nearly all Americans hold as self-evident. Recent elections have produced victories that transcended party affiliation and polling. New Jersey's Chris Christie, Virginia's Bob McDonnell, and Massachusett's Scott Brown succeeded in communicating American values and common sense in a manner easily understood and rewarded by their respective electorates. Florida's Marco Rubio and Michigan's Mike Cox are likewise engaging in constructive, solution-oriented campaigns in 2010.
Each of these leaders has well understood that burdensome issues met with well-reasoned solutions may be communicated without partisan rancor so that a greater percentage of family men and women can intelligently discern and decide whom to elect as a leader.
As leaders and advisors of leaders, we must spend less time doling out red meat speeches to our loyal perennial base, and devote more of our time listening to, researching, and developing comprehensive solutions to challenges facing Independents and those outside of our traditional party tent. If we fail to constructively address a broader range of concerns than those that have served as solid sound bites, then we will find the 2010 election cycle underwhelming.
Not every issue must be met with "us-versus-them" rhetoric. As leaders we must be willing to identify issues that are currently garnering support for our opponents and develop competitive, cost-effective and realistic solutions that provide real choices to attract Independent voters whose loyalties are to values and common sense...not to elephants and donkeys. Or you cleave to base-pleasing positions largely ignored by Independents and lose the increasingly Independent electorate to an opponent willing to provide those solutions.
Principles of values and common sense must always undergird our policies, but the needs of our electorate and of our nation at large must always guide the comprehensive solutions that spring forth from our policies.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Will you be leading a diverse electorate to victory and real family-focused solutions in that "shining city upon a hill", or will you be simply preaching to the choir in sound bites?
- Ronald Reagan: Farewell Address, Oval Office, January 11, 1989
Values and common sense are not partisan themes, but instead represent intergenerational principles that nearly all Americans hold as self-evident. Recent elections have produced victories that transcended party affiliation and polling. New Jersey's Chris Christie, Virginia's Bob McDonnell, and Massachusett's Scott Brown succeeded in communicating American values and common sense in a manner easily understood and rewarded by their respective electorates. Florida's Marco Rubio and Michigan's Mike Cox are likewise engaging in constructive, solution-oriented campaigns in 2010.
Each of these leaders has well understood that burdensome issues met with well-reasoned solutions may be communicated without partisan rancor so that a greater percentage of family men and women can intelligently discern and decide whom to elect as a leader.
As leaders and advisors of leaders, we must spend less time doling out red meat speeches to our loyal perennial base, and devote more of our time listening to, researching, and developing comprehensive solutions to challenges facing Independents and those outside of our traditional party tent. If we fail to constructively address a broader range of concerns than those that have served as solid sound bites, then we will find the 2010 election cycle underwhelming.
Not every issue must be met with "us-versus-them" rhetoric. As leaders we must be willing to identify issues that are currently garnering support for our opponents and develop competitive, cost-effective and realistic solutions that provide real choices to attract Independent voters whose loyalties are to values and common sense...not to elephants and donkeys. Or you cleave to base-pleasing positions largely ignored by Independents and lose the increasingly Independent electorate to an opponent willing to provide those solutions.
Principles of values and common sense must always undergird our policies, but the needs of our electorate and of our nation at large must always guide the comprehensive solutions that spring forth from our policies.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Will you be leading a diverse electorate to victory and real family-focused solutions in that "shining city upon a hill", or will you be simply preaching to the choir in sound bites?
Sunday, September 20, 2009
VISION TO VICTORY
Ronald Reagan had it; Governor Rick Perry has it. Do you have it? If not, you'd better get it...so that others will get it.
Every election will be decided when the independents lean in. You want a clear landslide--but you'll win with 50.1% . The right and the left will reliably remain loyal. Always. But the most recent presidential election differed from the 2000 presidential election simply because the independents leaned in a different direction.
Independents lean toward the most compelling vision, and then cast votes in the hope that the future will be better than the past. Ronald Reagan emerged at a time when America perceived that its President had yielded too much ground both at home (think Energy Crisis) and abroad (think Iranian Hostages). Ronald Reagan delivered confidence, growth, and patriotism to a nation that sorely needed it. Reagan successfully worked within his party and across party lines, ideological lines, and oceans.
More recently, Governor Rick Perry has skillfully guided Texas through the nation's economic turmoil. Education, entrepreneurship, clean energy, construction, and healthcare have all improved and prospered under his leadership. Texas' future looks equally bright under his continued leadership, because Governor Perry communicates his vision through actions that families and business leaders readily identify with and embrace.
Fear, negativity, and obstruction only have so much mileage. Name-calling and demagoguery provide red meat for pundits until the next news story comes along. But families and business leaders look for tangible results and then vote accordingly.
Reagan and Perry, both smart leaders, have understood that the people (the voters) want to trust, identify with, and believe in their elected leaders. Their visions convey optimism without yielding values and principles. Both leaders could disagree with others without being disagreeable, both domestically and internationally. Leading from a vision of growth, optimism and consensus-building, effective governance has followed.
TODAY'S QUESTION: How are YOU going to convey your PRINCIPLES and VALUES so that the deciding majority embraces your VISION?
Every election will be decided when the independents lean in. You want a clear landslide--but you'll win with 50.1% . The right and the left will reliably remain loyal. Always. But the most recent presidential election differed from the 2000 presidential election simply because the independents leaned in a different direction.
Independents lean toward the most compelling vision, and then cast votes in the hope that the future will be better than the past. Ronald Reagan emerged at a time when America perceived that its President had yielded too much ground both at home (think Energy Crisis) and abroad (think Iranian Hostages). Ronald Reagan delivered confidence, growth, and patriotism to a nation that sorely needed it. Reagan successfully worked within his party and across party lines, ideological lines, and oceans.
More recently, Governor Rick Perry has skillfully guided Texas through the nation's economic turmoil. Education, entrepreneurship, clean energy, construction, and healthcare have all improved and prospered under his leadership. Texas' future looks equally bright under his continued leadership, because Governor Perry communicates his vision through actions that families and business leaders readily identify with and embrace.
Fear, negativity, and obstruction only have so much mileage. Name-calling and demagoguery provide red meat for pundits until the next news story comes along. But families and business leaders look for tangible results and then vote accordingly.
Reagan and Perry, both smart leaders, have understood that the people (the voters) want to trust, identify with, and believe in their elected leaders. Their visions convey optimism without yielding values and principles. Both leaders could disagree with others without being disagreeable, both domestically and internationally. Leading from a vision of growth, optimism and consensus-building, effective governance has followed.
TODAY'S QUESTION: How are YOU going to convey your PRINCIPLES and VALUES so that the deciding majority embraces your VISION?
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