A quote I read recently instantly struck a chord – “Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does”. It’s not what you truly believe in that defines the person you are, it’s your actions.
Our values and beliefs are critical to the happiness and successes we experience in life. Yet, the majority of us are not consciously aware of what it is we highly value. This ignorance costs our self motivation and self esteem dearly, and without acknowledging and practicing what we ultimately believe in, powerful self improvements will not happen.
To define your own personal beliefs and values answer the following questions: 1) What is important to you in life? 2)What has high worth to you? And 3) What are your morals, principles, and standards of behavior? Grab a pen and paper and scribble down the answers that come to mind. Creating a greater self awareness about your values and beliefs will give you more control, clearer direction, and more victories with any self improvement projects you undertake.
Performing a task like this can be rather enlightening and insightful. Elements of your list will represent how you are currently living your life, while other elements may be an ideal but may be inconsistent to the current behaviours you demonstrate. What behaviours express your belief systems, and what behaviours don’t? What types of people attract you and why? What things do you make time for and what do you avoid? Creating and assessing a list can help you to ascertain what is really important to you and your life, and assist you in reprioritizing your life to be congruent with those things deemed important by you. It will also provide greater clarity for any new habits you need to instill.
You may find that a discrepancy or paradoxical behavior exists that has possibly been a limiting factor in your success in recent times. For instance, you may value your health and fitness but at the same time claim that you don’t have the time or money to address that value. It’s important to recognize the aspects of your life that you’ve prioritized over and above these values, and how altering your perception of your time and money investment can make a big difference. For instance, you may say that you cannot afford to pay a weekly amount for a gym membership but yet you pay four dollars for a cappacino every day. Or you may feel restricted by time when, actually, if you reduced your daily television viewing and internet surfing time you might easily be able to scrape together one free hour three days each week.
Upon full analysis of your list of beliefs and values, and construing methods to better align our actions and behaviours with what we consider to be highly important in life, you will become more at ease with both yourself and your life. You will feel a greater sense of harmony with presenting yourself to the world, and will certainly experience a reduction in intrinsic conflict. When we truly know ourselves, and apply ourselves accordingly, greater confidence will follow. Our list is paramount to making small, meaningful differences to the lives we live and can even be a catalyst for a complete change of direction.
What are your values? And are you following them?
For feedback email corinne@fitfixnz.co.nz
