Part 4: Use your Values to intentionally point your attention

*(intention = attentional intent)

As you now know – your values and beliefs sit at the core of you and decide what you pay attention to in your daily life. Whether you know them or not – you are driven each moment!

So it makes a lot of sense that you get to know at least some of your values (as you’ve just done) and use them to gain some agency over how you spend your attention. It makes sense not to fly on autopilot, no? Which is why I asked along on this little ‘trip‘ of self-discovery.

As with all skills, though, practice bridges the gap between intent and results (practice = action).

So to be able to use your newly defined values to drive your intentionality, you must practice KNOWING your values’ meanings so well that you can recite them under duress without even a blip. That way you’re signaling your mind that you see those things as important to you.

The easiest and most fun way to internalise these new values is to make one of them at a time the theme for a month. Print a few reminders of your chosen theme and stick them in places you’re at frequently (post-its will do just fine too; or you can have them as your phone or watch screen background).

Then you can:

1. Look for instances throughout the day, in which you’re already living in alignment with or experiencing your chosen value.
2. Or create instances and opportunities to help you live through and experience that value more often.

Depending on the importance of that value – you could look to build-in experiences of it single or multiple times a day, or weekly. But while in the practice processes:

• Write what you discover in your daily tracker.
• Journal about the ‘meatier‘ bits you insight.
• Finetune your value definitions as you move deeper into understanding yourself within their context.
• Make a list of what you could:
  • do more of;
  • do less of, or stop altogether;
  • start doing;
• Decide what needs to change and fit it into your daily life to make sure your important value drivers are always the main theme in your life.

Closing thoughts…

And that’s all there is to begin your transformation to intentionally direct your daily focus. The exercise we’ve just been through is easy, can be fun, and pretty robustly effective way of getting yourself even out of chronic stuckness.

It moves you from a different plane than the one the problem was created from. It taps into your natural propensity to seek out the clues your mind’s been given. It’s not passive – but that just adds to its power.

And because it works with your natural wiring, it can be used equally well with adults, your kids, or your team. All humans respond. It’s especially effective if you embrace this process with child-like curiosity and look for the hidden gems. Engage your creativity to your heart’s content – no one’s looking. No one needs to know.

OR… you could get others involved. Whatever makes it ‘sticky‘ for you.

My initial core value drivers were: Love, Trust, Create, Breathe, Buzz. So if I take my top value of Love – I could ask my partner to get into a ‘game’ with me to help me fit in at least one moment of love in my day.

If you have kids – you can involve them by asking them to share their moments of love experienced throughout the day. Each time you flag a value up into your conscious mind, you amp up its power. So it’s more likely you’ll spot another instance when it comes up again.

The variability is endless – and that’s the beauty of getting to understand first what makes you tick, then applying an intervention on top in the way that makes it feel yours – like it was always a part of you.

This familiarity makes change less scary to your brain, and speeds up the identification with the new process, which is a critical component in behaviour change. The sooner a new thing feels like it’s a part of you, the sooner you get to internalise it and use it as part of your M.O. instead of having to ‘paint by numbers‘ each day just to keep your habit streak alive :o)

When you’re ready…

At this stage you should check in with yourself – if you’ve had enough with just this intervention – take it and use it. Schedule it in your daily routine and make one of your values the theme for a month. Email me to let me know how you’ve got on with the ‘treasure hunt‘.

Get unstuck. Gain momentum. Thrive! Then come back for more…

Truth is – I find that focusing on one new intervention at a time is rewarding and works well.

But there are times when I’ve heard the intervention and fully GET the impact it will make when I apply it. Yet I’m pulled to first understand the underlying global principles of why this thing works… I just need to know more.

In our case here, discovering and leveraging our core value drivers is just one of the steps to seeing our broader Traits Inventory. It’s one piece of the Self-Design ‘puzzle‘. We have another four paths to explore and leverage that are even more powerful than this.

I’m going to stop here with the explanations, and will let you assess where you’re at – within yourself? You have collected enough skill from this short chat to take massive action. You can take this now and test what we spoke about for one of your most valuable values. Let it nourish your life.

If you’re tugged to find out more – you want the full spectrum of the ‘rainbow‘, and you’d prefer to work with me to help you get to your solutions and goals in the most direct path, choose a time for a free exploratory call here – and let’s get you moving.

Either way – I’m grateful for your time and attention. Don’t let it go to waste :o)