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PERFORMANCE: Aligning Your Goals To Your Values

 

 Your  values  are  what  you  define  as  most  important.  At  their  core,  values  are  your  strongest  emotional  drivers.  They  are  behind  every  decision  you  make.    • You  become  clear  on  your  values  and  what  you  value  most.  • You  become  sure  of  your  goals  and  align  them  with  what  is  most  important  to  you.  • You  sort  out  your  values  conflicts  and  this  means  you  go  for  your  goals  100%.  

   

Have  you  ever  set  a  goal  for  something  you  really  didn’t  want  or  perhaps  your  heart  wasn’t  really  into?    ..........................................................................................................................................................

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Why aligning your goals to your values is so important?  

 

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Your  values  are  what  you  define  as  most  important.  At  their  core,  values  are  your  strongest  emotional  drivers.  They  are  behind  every  decision  you  make,  hot-­‐wired  into  your  nervous  system  to  draw  you  towards  some  things  and  away  from  other  things.  To  be  clear,  your  values  (what’s  most  important  to  you)  are  not  things  like  a  car  or  more  money.  You  need  to  ask  yourself,  “if  I  had  the  car  or  money  or  the  job  etc.,  what  would  that  give  me?”  For  example  freedom,  power,  security,  recognition  etc.,  It’s  these  emotional  states  that  we  define  as  your  inner  values.    It  is  impossible  to  be  successful  when  you  unconsciously  associate  that  success  with  pain!  Working  on  values  means  firstly  finding  out  what  emotions  are  driving  your  current  decisions,  what  is  most  important  to  you  now.  Taking  this  further,  many  people  discover  that  they  are  being  pulled  in  several  different  directions  at  once,  so  ironing  out  these  inner  conflicts  becomes  paramount.  And  ultimately,  getting  into  alignment  with  your  true  values  is  the  goal.  Only  when  you  have  done  this  does  goal-­‐setting  become  meaningful.    There  is  no  point  setting  goals  without  first  clarifying  your  most  important  values.  When  you  are  clear  on  your  values,  then  goal  setting  becomes  easy.  The  key  is  to  then  ensure  that  your  goals  will  help  you  to  achieve  your  most  important  values.  Many  people  set  goals  that  they  think  will  bring  what  they  want  and  spend  their  whole  life  climbing  the  ladder  of  success  only  to  find  it’s  been  leaning  against  the  wrong  wall  (original  source  of  this  analogy  unknown!).    As  Mark  Victor  Hansen  writes,  failure  to  achieve  your  values  is  not  a  setback,  it  is  a  real  failure.  Don’t  let  it  happen  to  you.  Work  out  what  is  most  important  to  you  and  spend  most  of  your  time,  money,  and  energy  on  those  things.  

 

Examples  of  values  are:  Happiness  Love  Success  Health  Freedom  Security  Adventure  Power  Comfort  Humor  Contribution  Growth  

Values – Clarify and Align Your Values  

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Now  list  what’s  most  important  to  you  in  school  or  life.  Do  a  top  5.  Just  write  them,  brainstorm  them  and  then  rank  them  in  order  of  importance.    ..........................................................................................................................................................

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   Now  that  you  are  more  clear  on  the  inner  values  that  drive  you  we  can  set  goals  to  align  with  those.  As  we  have  seen  having  a  goal  that  does  not  link  and  align  with  your  deepest  values  will  make  you  suffer,  you  will  be  conflicted  and  this  is  how  self  sabotage  happens.  However  before  we  get  to  goals  let’s  focus  on  vision.  Be  sure  to  complete  the  free  writing  association  below.      

Write  for  60  seconds  about  how  you  want  this  year  or  this  semester  to  be  for  you  regarding  school.    • Who  do  you  want  to  be  during  this  time.  E.g.,  relaxed,  calm,  confident,  motivated,  happy  etc.  • What  will  you  be  doing  if  you  were  being  that  way?  • What  would  you  experience  or  have  if  you  were  doing  that?  

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Vision  

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SMART  goals  (Specific,  Measurable,  Achievable,  Realistic,  Time-­‐based)  are  really  clever  for  short  term  but  not  for  longer  term  goal  setting.  Only  really  big  goals  inspire  you.  Set  a  goal  that  scares  you  a  little  but  make  sure  that  it  ties  in  with  what  you  rated  high  in  your  values.    Here  is  the  problem  -­‐  if  you  have  a  goal  to  receive  a  high  academic  result  in  a  particular  subject  but  you  have  a  value  that  is  high  around  freedom  or  fun  and  you  feel  that  working  hard  for  that  grade  will  take  your  freedom  and  fun  away  you  will  not  go  for  that  goal  100%  YES!      It  will  be,  “yeah  I  want  to  achieve  that  BUT  I  really  want  my  freedom  and  fun.”  So  you  need  to  sort  out  those  conflicts  -­‐  you  can  check  out  the  topics  on  the  tapping  technique  or  how  to  change  your  thinking  around  to  help  here.  The  other  practical  thing  you  can  do  is  set  it  up  so  you  work  hard  and  reward  yourself  with  freedom  and  fun.  The  good  thing  is  now  you  know  how  to  set  goals  that  are  really  smart  and  inspiring  and  aligned  to  what  drives  you  emotionally  -­‐  your  inner  values.    

Time  to  set  a  goal  and  check  to  see  if  it  aligns  with  your  inner  values.  If  it  doesn’t,  do  what  we  just  spoke  about  regarding  negative  thoughts  or  practically  set  it  up  so  your  reward  for  doing  what  you  need  to  do  to  achieve  the  goal  is  experiencing  your  highest  rated  values.  ..........................................................................................................................................................

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   1)  Identify  Your  Highest  Values.  2)  Create  a  vision  for  what  you  want  to  experience.  3)  Set  goals  around  this  vision  and  check  that  those  goals  align  with  your  inner  values.      

Goals  

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Action for you to take right NOW: