What do you stand for?

Last week, I discussed the first step and concept from The Circle of Impact, which is defining yourself. In that blog, I highlighted the distinction between baggage and luggage and how those terms might help you define yourself. Check out last week’s blog here.

As you work through the process of defining yourself, the next step of The Circle of Impact naturally occurs. This step is declaring and listing your values. As an entrepreneur it is crucial that we know what we stand for. Running a small business daily places us in situations where we must show our customers, vendors and community what we stand for. When I mention values, many entrepreneurs immediately start writing down some nice sounding words that seem as though they would be on a fancy poster in their office. When I ask somebody to share their values, I ask them what they stand for. So, what do you stand for? What are you willing to face adversity for? What are you willing to make a fool of yourself for? What are you willing to stand up and fight for, even if you are the only one in the fight? What if you are the only one in the fight and the odds and fight is stacked against you? What are you willing to die for? This is what I mean when I talk about values. Your values are your guiding principles that you live by and that direct you and ground you in decision making daily. What are yours?

Perhaps you’re having difficulty identifying and declaring these. Here is a highly excellent practice for discovering your values. The “Your 5 List” is what it’s named. Write down the five persons in your life with whom you spend the most time or who have had the biggest influence on you. These are folks you should know well and who should know you well. Aside from that, you will become the books you read and the five individuals with whom you spend the most time. Now that you’ve identified your five people, jot down 4-5 traits that best describe each of them. What do you think their core values are? What are your essential values, according to each of these people? When you finish this list, you should have roughly 40-50 values listed. The first half is what you see in them, and the second half is what they see in you. What parallels do you see? What you value and perceive in others is likely to be what they value and see in you. You associate with others who share your values and beliefs. This list of values may be the beginning of your list of values and what you stand for.

Tune in next week when I share how to take who you are defined to be and combine it with your values to frame this into a vision for your life.    

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