One topic that is connected to almost all other contributing elements to you living a flourishing life, is the clarity you have on your personal values.
This post is to get you to think about your sense of clarity about who you are and what you stand for in this world.
It’s to get you to think about the guiding principles by which you choose your decisions and actions.
Decisions, Actions and Trustworthiness
In a sales role, you experience many moments of choice and truth where you need to hold yourself accountable, in the moment, for the decisions you make and the actions you take.
Your customers will get your truth … Over time, they are assessing your intentions, promises, and actions.
Their assessment of your intentions, promises and actions will determine whether they will trust you or not, and whether they will buy from you or not.
What Guides Your Decisions and Actions
This is where being clear about your personal values matters.
Your personal values allow you in the moment, not in hindsight, to make better decisions and take better actions.
The first step then is to get clear about what values you want to strive to demonstrate to the world about who you are and what you represent.
Your character and trustworthiness is judged by others through your values in action.
Let Your Values Guide Your Actions
When you are clear on your personal values, they provide you with direction and a blueprint toward appropriate goal supporting action.
This can help you strive to be at your best and achieve meaningful life goals – especially in tough times and when you are experiencing difficult thoughts and feelings.
As you’ve read a number of times through these posts, the reality is life isn’t always easy.
While it does get easier if you’re able to acknowledge and accept that it’s not easy, without being clear on your personal values, that becomes difficult to do.
You see, without clarity of your personal values to guide you in difficult times on appropriate actions to strive to be at your best, the danger is you get hooked into your difficult thoughts and feelings, which can cause you to get distracted and move away from striving to be the best version of yourself.
Activity
This week, take time to ask yourself, ‘What actions have I taken that demonstrate each of my core personal values?’ (Note: If you haven’t arrived at your core personal values, email me david@davidpenglase.com and I will send you a gift copy of the resource I use in my executive coaching to help clarify your personal values).
Evidence: Clarity of personal values is in itself a rewarding experience and enhances your sense of self-determination.
This releases your intrinsic motivation to achieve in life and nurtures your relationships through the demonstration of ‘good’ character and consistency in values-aligned behaviour.
Together, these form two of the three essential elements required for trustworthiness (the third being a demonstration of your competence).
25 Contributing Elements to Living a Good Life
This topic of Values is just one of 25 contributing elements to living a good life that I write about in my book LIVING in the Light of Day.
If you haven’t got your copy yet (in hardcover, paperback, kindle/ebook or audiobook versions), you can Buy It Here.
