When we are little, we adopt our parents’ values as our own, before we become influenced by our friends, their parents, religion, culture and other social groups and communities.

At times, our values may change and what we held true as children is no longer valid. This is often an unconscious process that only gets realised when some of our values either conflict with each other or with what we (have to or choose to) do, for example at work.

A values alignment gives you clarity about the values that you have currently and the ones you wish or need to have (for example if you start a business or need to get out of a relationship), brings them into the most appropriate order and helps you to make your values strong and supportive in order to achieve your goal(s).

Thanks to my Accountability Coach Shiona Long from “Authentic Success” I had my values elicited again today. (18th of May 2009) There have been significant changes on my list since I had done the values work last time, with some surprises and ‘aha’-moments.

What have values got to do with who we are?
Well, short and simple: everything.

Let me explain:
Values are principles or qualities that we value (or want to value) most. Our core values drive the experiences and things we are passionate about and that we desire in life, our guiding principles. Values are “the story” how we want our life to be, what is most important to us.

Examples of values are: Achievement, Balance, Commitment, Connection,Independence, Loyalty, Service (Contribution), or Spirituality (Clarity of Purpose).
Other values are: Generosity, Safety, Authenticity (Walking the Talk)

If we live in alignment with our values, we feel fulfilled, on purpose, in integrity and true to ourselves. Our values drive our thoughts. Our thoughts drive our actions as well as our non-actions. Our actions drive our behaviour, which then become our character. And finally this all together writes the story of our lives, our destiny.

Whether you have fulfilling relationships – or not, whether you are wealthy and healthy – or not, whether you are successful – or not – it all lies in your values.

But as always: awareness is the first step to change.

On my values list we found principles that do not longer belong there and that had to leave, because they were stopping me from achieving my goals. Others had to be included for better results and in order to make my life more complete.

What are your values? Do you live in alignment with your core principles? Have you allowed some values that hinder you from moving forward? Which ones are missing on your list? Are they in the right order? What would be the right order?

How would your life look like if you knew your values and lived in alignment with them? What could you achieve if your values supported your dream?

An individual values alignment gives you the foundation for building, maintaining and growing a strong business or choosing a new career path, creating fulfilling relationships, living authentically and as a result reduce stress and increase your overall wellbeing.

Register your interest now to get more information on how you too can benefit from the power of being in alignment with your values by calling 07 4774 8146 or send an e-mail with ‘Values Alignment’ in the subject line to info@transitionguidance.com today.

The Talmud says:

Sow a thought and reap an action
Sow an action and reap a habit
Sow a habit and reap a character
Sow a character and reap a destiny

I would love to add:

Know your values, because they determine your thoughts.

A value is something that is important to you. They are what our unconscious mind is striving to live by 24/7/365.

Trouble is, the unconscious mind does not care about what you think your values are or what you want them to be. Its only goal is to make you perform in alignment with the values that have been installed in you by others.

Even more important, your values are the source for the power that is responsible for the results that you get in life and from which you work towards or away from.

Luckily it is not only possible to elicit your current values, but also to delete the ones that are sabotaging you, to install the ones that are missing and even to bring them in an appropriate order of relevance to your life goals.

Know your values, so you can sow sow inspiring thoughts, reap focused actions, install functional habits, form an impressive character and hence ultimately create your aspired destiny.

To elicit and re-arrange your values contact me today on +617 4774 8146 or via e-mail to info[at]transitionguidance.com. I am looking forward to assist you in getting your “ducks in a row”, so you can take the fast track to success in your life.

It is impossible to describe the relief that I just had, pressing the “Send” button in my Thunderbird, which will transmit an e-mail with the final part of my Diploma assessment to my coaching school.

Whether I pass or not is not at all important at the moment, but that I did send it away, finishing all required tasks, answering every question to the best of my ability and giving the best that I could, was.

Are you sometimes procrastinating to do the things that, if you did them, would propel you towards achieving your desired outcome, reaching your goals or simply doing what needs to be done anyway straight away instead of postponing and risking unpleasant consequences?

If you are a bit like me, getting closer to a deadline helps. There is enormous power in a cut-off date, especially and even more if there is money involved. To trick myself, I have simply brought forward my deadline in addition to an easy and down-to-earth 3-step process to overcome procrastination:

1. Make a plan
Write down the dates and what needs to be done and check, whether or not the task can be finished in the given time frame.

In my case, I had 3 assessments, which where all due at the same day. Doing them simultaneously would have been an option, but not a necessity, because they can be done independently from each other.  So I chose to give each of the assessments a month for completion, which was very doable.

2. Break it down
Once you have a plan in front of you with the deadlines, you can then start to break down what needs to be done and by when it needs to be done. Make the task as small as you can, in as little time frames as possible. Blocks of 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the job, are ideal.
I had a part A, in which I had a number of questions to answer and a part B where I was asked to attach forms, sheets or other work to show how I had implemented the strategies from part A in my business.

Breaking down the question part was easy:
42 questions, 28 days (plus 2 to review the answers), makes 1,5 questions every day or 3 questions in two days. Knowing that I would not be able (or would not want to) work on the paper each single day, the goal became 3 questions per day, weekends of and 1 “joker day” per week, in which I would be “allowed” not to work on the paper. If you do the maths you’ll see that I would finish even earlier than the ‘every-day’ option.

I did the designing of the required sheet or form for part B, when I answered the relevant question from part A, so that all thoughts were fresh and I could immediately utilise (and test) what I had learned or found out.

Of course I did the easy questions first, and I want to suggest you do that too. Pick the task that can be done quickly and effortlessly. If you break it down effectively and really to the smallest detail possible, there will be at least one part that you may even like to do. Choose to accomplish this one or the one that would come closest to fulfilling this criteria first to get you going.

The effect of doing this is, that not only will you have started the process, but also you have an opportunity to celebrate a little success. I want to emphasise the importance of celebrating – not necessarily a big party of course, but a little reward.

Maybe you want to allow yourself to read one e-mail of your choice as a reward for doing this certain task in a certain time, or read a chapter in your favourite book, or clean the fridge, or whatever you would normally declare as ‘being more important’ than doing what really needs to be done.

When I was studying Architecture, I once decided that vacuuming was more important than building a model of my design, which was essential for completion. I was not really surprised to hear that some of my buddies’ apartments too where the more spotless the closer we came to a deadline!

If you make it a reward, you have something to look forward to and the easier it becomes to “Eat That Frog”. Nothing breeds success like success. Experiencing that wonderful feeling of getting something done will urge you to do more so you can feel this emotion again.

More than once I ‘allowed’ myself to work on the paper between 9am and 10am, only to extend the time to 11am, then 12pm or even until I really had to go and pick up my son from school.

3. Hold yourself accountable

If you are competitive, you can make a bet with a colleague or buddy, someone from your family, or even yourself. The more people you have around you who support you and ask you again and again how you are going with that project, the better – of course not to the extend that every five minutes someone is distracting you from actually doing the work. Maybe you can ask them to call, visit or check in with you just after your set deadline.

The less or not at all competitive procrastinator may be challenged a bit more in this step. If you belong to this category, you may rather respond to shame or guilt or any other feeling you would avoid more than anything else, which you could use to help you overcome procrastination.

Ask yourself: Who would you be letting down, if you did not finish in time (other than yourself)? Who would be disappointed about you (other than yourself)? Who would not respect you anymore (other than yourself)? Then go and commit to this person to doing what needs to be done and to hold you accountable.

However, using shame or guilt as a motivator means giving it a negative touch. It means that you are “moving away” from what you don’t want. Unfortunately moving away is a much less effective motivation than if you’d be moving towards something you want to have. Therefore one of the most important steps in a values elicitation is to convert any ‘away-from-motivation’ that might be present in the top values into being 100% towards motivated.

A tip for persistent procrastinators: find someone who does not notice you, but whom you respect and whom you would like to pay attention to you. Let him or her know what you want to do. No frog can be big enough that you would not eat it! It is a sure-fire way to overcome procrastination. You will do anything to avoid giving this person an opportunity to think negatively about you, wouldn’t you? (Of course this strategy is not always suitable, but if the situation allows it, can be very powerful!)

This is the step that is the most powerful and therefore the one where the rubber hits the road. If you can find a way to hold yourself or be held accountable, you will more likely overcome procrastination than if you would without that support system.

If you choose to, you can insert an additional step before you even begin: Research.
Allow yourself to explore, why you are procrastinating. Putting off tasks is most likely an effect of an underlying (limiting) belief and could indicate a fear (of failure or success) or an unfulfilled need (of significance or belonging). Procrastination is also an effective way to hide from taking on responsibility for consequences resulting from actions as well as from non-actions.

Exploring the root cause for procrastination requires both the courage to look at the real issue and honesty with yourself to dig deeper than you normally would. A trained and experienced coach will make sure that you get to the real issue, so that you can resolve once and for all, even if it means not being n.i.c.e. (especially if we spell it as “n.othing i.nside c.ares e.nough”!)

If your coach is trained in NLP, she will have even more tools to choose from and which will allow you to overcome procrastination within a heartbeat. For more information on techniques  you can use to conquer your limiting beliefs and their effects on your life experience, call 07 4774 8146 or e-mail info[at]transitionguidance.com to book a personality-reality check with our compliments.