3 Questions To Help You Plan Your Values And Lifestyle First

Alex Hormozi doesn’t like the word “should”. But I think in the context I am about to use the word, it makes sense. 

As humans, we are supposed to change constantly. And ideally for the better. 

We should become increasingly creative, humble and kind. 
We should become more vulnerable, passionate and learn more.
We should always pursue clarity by discarding what is no longer true and building on top of what currently matters to us.

And we should craft our life and work around our current core, defining principles, values for short.

Yet, society often leads us to believe that staying the same, routine and predictability is valuable. 

Many of us are steered toward a particular industry, organization, or job that simply does not feel in harmony with our personal values.

Such mixed messages lead us to feel conflicted. In order to feel less conflicted we should do a personal alignment check.

Finding YOUR Alignment

Achieving our greatest ambitions will not come easy. We will experience ups and downs. And heck, we might not even survive. But the pursuit is worth it if we are living in alignment. 

Like a car without alignment, we can veer off course. The more aligned our wheels are the better we can keep our trip between the lines. In order to know if we are living in alignment we benefit from our ability to answer three questions.

Sure, we can have conflicts between the work we are doing and the values we stand for. In fact we most likely will. But the goal should be to do a little bit each day to get more and more aligned. 

We should learn more and more about our personal values so that our work can become more and more an extension of what we stand for.

There exist two big questions that we must answer to help us decide on our alignment needs

• Who Are You? 
• Why Do You Work
• What Do You Want To Do?

How To Figure Life Out

It can be really stressful to “try and figure life out” and for some of us that question eats away at the minutes in our day until we don’t even have time left to live.

This is another reason why I use the handle @justtries. Because it puts a premium, emphasis on taking action. 

Many of us overanalyze and worry about what we could do in life. But, the only way to figure it out, is to ditch the speculation, stop obsessing and start living.

However, if we leave these two big alignment questions up to randomness we can quickly end up in a cycle of confusion, sort of spinning our tires instead of taking action.

Uncover Your True Values

There are two metaphors that I love to think of when it comes to revisiting who we are and who we want to be.

The first is to think of the person we are as a statue, completely covered in rust, caked in mud, and then buried beneath a collapsed building. There’s no way we can see what it is. But if we pull back the debris and clean it off we’ll find the beautiful statue within.

Similarly, I like to picture a diamond ring accidentally dropped into the most disgusting outhouse toilet in the world only to be discovered years later after so many people have used that restroom. As gross as it sounds, once we shine it up, we’ll find the beautiful diamond within. 

As I mentioned at the top, in solo episode 28 we looked at strengths, interests and inspirations to hint at things you might want to try.

Well, now we’re going to look at identity, work needs, and life desires that are based on our values.

Uncovering these true values is like cleaning off our statue, or ring. The beauty is already inside us but it might have been covered up.

If we fail to make uninterrupted time to re-evaluate and figure out who we are, and what we really want, then our beauty will stay covered up. It might even get covered more and we’ll end up settling.

So don’t waste any more time discovering who you really are. Start right away, right this instant by answering some of these questions for yourself.

Life Design Triangle: Who Are You Why Do You Work And What Do You Want To Do?

Designers love questioning things. And what would be more important than designing our lives?

In today’s activity, we will think of three big questions that connect our life and our life’s work. I like to call it the Life Design Triangle.

To do this, separate a piece of paper into three sections, or use three pieces of paper and write the following headings. Who Are You? Why Do You Work? What Do You Want To Do?

Remember, while these prompts provide a lot of ideas and suggestions, there are no right or wrong answers. Just go with your gut and write down what comes to mind.

Past, present, or future, the idea is to reflect and record about these three topics.

Who Are You?

1. List the top ten values you want to have in your life.
2. What gives meaning to your life?
3. List the most important “must haves” for your future when it comes to self-care, family, health, money, hobbies, and friends?

Why Do You Work?

1. List the top ten values you want to have in your work..
2. What gives meaning to your work?
3. Do you consider your current work a short-term project, temporary job, or lifelong dedication?
4. What experiences have you had that you think you would like to have more of, and what experiences have you had that you think you would like to have less of?

What Do You Want To Do?

1. Where do you want to work, or what do you want to do for work?
2. What would the best work, and life schedule and culture look like for you in terms of people you work with, size, or scale, dress code, day-to-day routine, schedule, rewards, communication, and goals?
3. What would you like to try as a hobby, or pastime that you think will bring you enjoyment?

Now I’m going to read the 131 values that can make the foundation of the decisions that we make related to life and work. But first a quick reminder.

This is a forever game. This will always evolve and shift. So don’t beat yourself up about it.

Not only are you not going to have these things all figured out ever, but right when you think you might they will change again.

And that’s OK.

The point isn’t to find the single right answer.
The point is to work toward the closest we can get to having it all “figured out”.

131 Values You Could Use To Build Your Foundation

Power
Popularity
Spontaneity 
Collaboration
Equality
Tradition
Variety
Money
Vitality
Assurance
Honesty
Integrity
Responsibility
Respect
Compassion
Empathy
Kindness
Gratitude
Forgiveness
Trust
Loyalty
Diligence
Perseverance
Patience
Courage
Humility
Self-discipline
Accountability
Open-mindedness
Fairness
Objectivity
Authenticity
Creativity
Unity
Control
Duty
Structure
Discovery 
Affluence
Contentment
Excitement
Curiosity
Flexibility
Adaptability
Ambition
Bravery
Confidence
Independence
Initiative
Ingenuity
Innovation
Leadership
Learning
Mindfulness
Optimism
Resilience
Self-awareness
Self-care
Self-improvement
Selflessness
Humor
Sensitivity
Sincerity
Spirituality
Teamwork
Tolerance
Understanding
Wisdom
Altruism
Authenticity
Balance
Wellness
Boldness
Caring
Cleanliness
Community
Cooperation
Decency
Dependability
Determination
Discipline
Empowerment
Enthusiasm
Excellence
Exploration
Family
Love
Generosity
Global-awareness
Growth
Health
Originality
Efficiency
Speed
Hospitality
Inclusivity
Innovation
Justice
Knowledge
Longevity
Rewards
Loyalty
Modesty
Nurturing
Orderliness
Passion
Peace
Philanthropy
Pragmatism
Prosperity
Punctuality
Rationality
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Security
Service
Simplicity
Social responsibility
Stability
Thoughtfulness
Tolerance
Transparency
Entertainment
Consistency
Routine
Energy
Belonging
Adventure
Dignity
Minimalism
Environment

Thanks for reading. Your pal,
Justin @JustTries 

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