Living Your Values, Part 1

I’ve read many books that stress the importance of understanding your personal values, getting clear about what’s most important to you in life. But at the time of this writing, I haven’t yet come across a source that covers this incredibly useful concept with sufficient depth. Most of the values coverage I’ve read takes you…

Knowing When to Break a Commitment

I certainly understand those who reacted negatively to the software book cancellation. Keeping commitments is important to me. The key lesson I had to learn though was when to break a commitment — if you reach a higher state of awareness where your original commitment no longer makes sense, how do you know when to…

Values Update

This past week I updated my personal values. My previous list was (in order of priority): Growth Intelligence/reason Clarity/focus Drive/desire/determination Efficiency Self-discipline Health/vitality Success/achievement/accomplishment Industry/persistence/diligence Confidence Resilience Courage Loyalty Order/structure/cleanliness Curiosity Excitement/adventure My new list is: Clarity/focus Health/vitality/fitness Peace Connection/empathy Intelligence/reason Honor/honesty Courage Fun/humor Excellence/mastery Impact/making a difference Growth I normally update my values every…

Making a Quantum Leap

Since 1992, I’ve been pursuing personal growth with a passion. I’ve attended seminars, listened to audio programs, and read hundreds of books in this field. I’ve easily spent many thousands of dollars and invested thousands of hours on such pursuits. And one thing I can tell you from all of this effort is that personal…

Are Your Friends an Elevator or a Cage?

As a follow-up to the last entry, let’s explore the role of the people in your life. Are they elevating you to be the best person you can be, or are they holding you back? I mentioned in my last entry that when going through major life shifts, like changing careers, I would shift the…

Environmental Reinforcement of Your Goals

Daily affirmations are something you’ll commonly see recommended in pop-psychology books. Each day you verbally affirm your goals as if they’re already accomplished. However, you usually won’t get any results at all with this approach — in most cases it’s an utter waste of time. Why is this? Because every thought is an affirmation. If…

The Guy in the Glass

One of my favorite poems is “The Guy in the Glass,” which is about integrity and honesty to oneself. I first encountered it 20 years ago. It is usually mistitled as “The Man in the Glass” and is often inaccurately credited to the enormously prolific author Anonymous. The true author of the poem is Dale…

Fear of Success: What Will Happen if You Succeed?

Sometimes you find yourself with a goal you think you should want to achieve, but you just don’t seem to be taking enough action to reach it. You aren’t really afraid of failure or rejection, the path to the goal seems clear enough and might even be an interesting challenge, and occasionally you’ll make some…