7 Steps to Living a Value-Based Life.
Are you living a value-based life? If you need to find out go to part one of this series Evaluate Your Life in 5 Steps to answer that question.
So, if you’re reading this, chances are you think that there’s room for improvement in your life? Great!
7 Steps for Living a Value-Based Life:
Collect data on your circadian rhythms for a week.
This takes, “I’m a morning person” or “I’m a night owl” to a whole new level! For every hour of the day, be mindful of what your energy level is on a scale of 1 (no energy) to 5 (can’t sit still) and mark it down. Look for trends. Do you tend to have more energy in the mornings, afternoons, evenings? When do you need a little bit more quiet time?
Look at your calendar for the next 12 weeks.
Using your circadian rhythms, create a schedule that reflects when the best time is to do certain activities. For example, I was an athlete all through high school, so from 3:00-6:00pm most days, I need to be up and moving because my body is used to practicing during these times. When I was teaching, I preferred to teach in the afternoon and write in the mornings where I was able to sit still and focus. Try to block the schedule into two-hour intervals—it tends to be the perfect amount of time to hit a flow state, but not compromise your focus.
Goal map three values you want to make some changes in over the next 12 weeks.
Take one value at a time. What is the end goal for that value 12 weeks from now? Make sure that the end goal is a SMART goal. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. I already built the time bound in for you, you have 12 weeks! You’re welcome! Setting the goal of “I want to be healthier” is not a SMART goal. Saying “I want to lose 20 lbs in the next 12 weeks is. It’s specific (lose weight), measurable (20 lbs), attainable (losing 1-2lbs per week is typical), and relevant (I no longer want a BMI that falls within the overweight category). Write the end goal on the right-hand side of a piece of paper. Think about what specific actions do you need to do on a daily and weekly basis to make that end goal happen? Write those specific actions on the left side of the sheet of paper and draw arrows to the end goal. Yes, you should be writing down your goal map, you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals by simply writing them down!
Commit to scheduling your week based on your goal map.
Chose an evening each week and sit down with your planner. First, insert all obligations. Second, schedule tasks for your various responsibilities inside every available block of time. This should include those specific actions that you identified in step 3.
Follow through on your schedule for the week.
Try to protect your schedule religiously. Obviously, things pop up that we have no control over, but those should be the exception, not the rule. Additionally, know that self-control is finite meaning we only have so much of it. So, there will be times where you will want to do something that is much easier (binge This Is Us?) than the task you scheduled, but I wouldn’t. It’s a slippery slope! Once you do it once, chance is it will be easier the next time and then the next time and so on.
Evaluate how you did at the end of each week.
Be honest with yourself. We are not judging ourselves here. All we want to do is evaluate, sans emotion, whether you completed the task you set out to accomplish during the time that you specified. If you are most of the time, then WOO HOO! Keep it up! If you are not accomplishing what you set out to do when you said you would do it, then it’s time to problem solve—focusing particularly on barriers and distractors.
Celebrate your success and troubleshoot your failures.
At the end of your 12 weeks, evaluate whether you achieved your goals. Celebrate your successes, regardless of how small. We like small successes because they have the potential to lead to BIG changes! Troubleshoot your failures. Yes, you failed, and that’s okay. But let’s use that failure to fuel future changes!
There you go! So go out and make a positive change in your life. Take the steps to make your world a little better. And if your world is a little better then you’ve just made the world a little better too.
Want to learn more details about each of the 7 steps to living a value-based life?
Sign up for our Living a Value-Based Life webinar! You’ll walk away with practical tips, tricks, tools, handouts, and the confidence to live your value-based life. The next webinar is November 7, 2021 at 8:30pm EST and the suggested cost is $25 per household.
Feel like you want someone to walk beside you as you go through this process?
BrightSpot Families is here for you! Schedule your free 15-minute consultation today.
Need some accountability, because let’s be real, who doesn’t?
Join one of our accountability groups! You’ll meet monthly with a group of people who are all trying to live a value-based life. Get support. Gain access to people who will call you out when you are not. Receive encouragement when you need it. And provide tried and true (and maybe what not-to-do’s, because they failed) methods for living a value-based life.
Here at BrightSpot Families, we believe that individual change leads to family change which leads to societal change. Be the change you want to see in the world—credited to Gandhi, but not actually said by him. Your fun fact of the day!