Values Based Success is about creating change in your life based on the Values that are important to you. Your Values are the foundation of the results that you get in life, so you need to choose Values that are truly important to you, not others. You need to craft a plan that supports those Values.
Why is that important?
Values are the Foundation of Our Results
If our Values are the foundation of our results, it seems that we should always get what we Value in life; and that’s sort of true. We get results that spring from the things we Value right now. That means there’s a hierarchy of Values we all have. Some are more important than others. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t violate higher Values for lower Values. Sometimes, we’re selfish and violate Values for selfish reasons or out of emotional outbursts. In that moment we Value our true Values less than being selfish or being emotional. We get results from those temporary changes in what’s most important to us, even if we know it’s not what we ultimately truly Value.
Values Based Success is about keeping us aware of our Values and living the life that results from those Values. We have to know what the Values are first though. We have to know what kind of life those Values lead to (Vision) and how we want to get there (Mission). From there we create the Roadmap that gets us to our Vision. That’s our Goals and Action Plans.
All Success and all failure stems from how closely we align ourselves and our actions with our Values.
Examine anyone who’s succeeded or failed spectacularly. Successes are totally and radically aligned with their Values. They know them. Their Values drive them. They live them. Failures might know their Values but not likely. Or they let other people’s Values be their foundation. Or they choose negative Values over positive Values. Failures don’t align their lives and plans with positive Values that they own. Failures often wander without direction precisely because they don’t know and understand their Values.
You might ask, what about people who seem to achieve Success, but are ruthless, negative, destructive people? Great question.
Those types of people may have material or worldly gains, but not true Success. True Success is unique to the individual and based on positive Values, not negative ones. Negative Values are often ones that have an implied phrase at the end, “at any cost.” For example, wealth (at any cost) or attaining a certain standard of living (at any cost) or dominating a field or market (at any cost). These Values are perverted versions of positive Values.
Any Value that can be expressed in a selfish way or without regard to the harm done to others is a negative Value.
We see these at work in all walks of life from personal relationships to professional to the political. It’s seen in the attitudes that show how some people believe they’re inherently better than others. The attitudes that show how some people take offense at anything no matter how small and are quick to anger and judgement are a common example.
Success based on positive Values by default will respect others, pursue results that don’t violate your other Values or violate the rights and dignity of other people. It doesn’t mean we can’t desire to be rich or have a great lifestyle. The question is what do you have to do get there? How does that fit in with the things and ideals that are important to you? How do you serve your family, community, colleagues, customers or employees to get there?
That’s what Values Based Success helps you find out. That’s what it keeps you striving for, to be a positive influence in your own life, your family’s, you community and in the lives of everyone you meet.
