Tag Archives | values

Who am I? Taking a look at passions

By on September 26, 2011 in Growth, Holistic Wellness, Purpose
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Sometimes, we get so caught up in doing all the things that we think we ought to do, or should do, or need to do, or have to do, that we lose touch with what it is exactly that we want to do. And sometimes we get lost doing all the things that we think other people want us to do or expect us to do. Now, it’s time to get back in touch with exactly what it is that makes our hearts sing: those things that we’re passionate about.

What are your passions in life? Get out your notebook or journal and write down everything that comes to mind. As always, please keep an open mind so you can avoid filtering things out. Also remember not to judge the things that you think of. Just write everything down, and get the ideas flowing!

  • Which of your past or current hobbies do you love so much that you could do them for hours and days on end, without ever getting tired of them?
  • What could you spend hours reading about online or in books? Or taking classes and workshops on? Or talking about all day?
  • Which activities or hobbies do you get so absorbed in that all of a sudden you look at the clock and can’t believe that hours have gone by, you hadn’t noticed it got dark outside, and you even forgot to eat?
  • What things are you so confident about doing, that the word “failure” never comes into you mind when you’re doing them?
  • What motivates you, inspires you, and makes you feel alive and full of energy?
  • If you had all the time and money you needed, and could dedicate yourself to doing a handful of things just for fun, what would they be?
  • If you had an imaginary parallel life where everything were ideal, what would you be doing in it?
  • What things do you find so easy to do, that you think they must be common sense to everyone else as well?

Now, what is it about these things that you love so much? What is it that you get out of doing these activities? Is it because they allow you to:

  • Relax and recharge energy?
  • Help others?
  • Express yourself artistically?
  • Learn?
  • Make a difference in the world?
  • Get in the zone? Feel like you’re flowing?
  • What else?
Get clear on exactly what it is that you get out of these activities. Now you’re one step further on getting to know yourself. So what else did you learn from all this? What else did you get out of it?
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Who am I? Taking a look at interests

By on September 20, 2011 in Growth, Holistic Wellness, Purpose
Flower in Paramaribo.

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Another important part of getting to know ourselves is to acknowledge things that we love doing, and one of the questions I suggested exploring at the Authentic Happiness Summit was: What are your interests?

Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in doing all the things that we feel we should do, or need to do, or have to do, that we forget those things that we really want to do. So what things interest you in life?

I’ve already written a post on interests, so I won’t repeat myself here. I’ll just copy the main part of the exercise below.

1. Sit down with your notebook or journal, and list at least 10 responses for each of the following categories:

  • Things you really love doing.
  • Hobbies you love. Or wish you had more time to do. Or would love to try.
  • Things that make you feel good.
  • Activities that energise you.
  • Things you like to do when you’re on holiday.
  • Activities that de-stress you.
  • Things you enjoy learning or want to learn.
  • Skills you have. Things you know you’re good at
  • Subjects you most enjoy reading about, in books, magazines, on the web, or wherever.

How was that? You should now have at least 90 different things on your big list. Some categories are similar, so there may be some cross over.

2. Next, go through the list and filter out the top ten interests that really make your heart sing. Which activities do you truly enjoy doing most? What skills do you most enjoy using?

3. Finally, rank those ten in order, from one to ten.

If you’ve read the original post, there were some additional suggestions that I made. But for now, just take it this far. We’re still in the process of getting to know ourselves.

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Check out the Events page

By on September 19, 2011 in Holistic Wellness
Pink tulip flower

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I finally set up the Events page here on this site. I’ve got three exciting events planned for the month of October, and after last Saturday’s Authentic Happiness Summit (which was amazing), I can’t wait to share everything else I’ve got planned. So please check it out!

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Who am I? Taking a look at values

By on September 19, 2011 in Change, Growth, Holistic Wellness, Purpose
Edelweiss flower buds

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ll be posting a series of activities to help you what I referred to as the three happiness questions in my talk at the Authentic Happiness Summit. So get out your notebook or journal, where you can record your observations and answers to the upcoming activities. Some things might be easier to print out and just paste in, as with this one.

One of the most basic steps to looking at who we are is to examine our values, and yesterday we did a quick values exercise. So what are values? Values are those things that really matter to each of us: the ideas and beliefs we hold as special. A value is something which is intrinsic to what somebody feels to be fundamentally important in THEIR life. It drives their actions and their decisions, their feelings of satisfaction about where they are in life, and their relationship with others. Values essentially define who a person is. Values are neither good nor bad, they simply are. And they’re different for each and every one of us.

Yesterday at the Summit we did a quick version of this exercise, with a reduced list of values. Here I’m providing a slightly more extensive list that you can print out. We’re going to do this a bit differently from how we did it yesterday, because we’ve got more time.

  1. Check all the values that resonate with you.
  2. If you feel any are missing, add them at the bottom of the list.
  3. Next, review the list of values that you already selected, and choose your top 5 values. Some people find this part challenging, but if you were with me yesterday, you got it down to three, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
  4. Then, review the list of five values, and choose your top 2 values.
  5. Finally, choose which of those two is your number one value.

How was that? Were you surprised by your answers at any of the steps?

Glue or staple this values sheet into your notebook or journal, and record what you learned from this exercise.

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