All posts tagged Stephen Covey

The Importance of Living a Meaningful Life Through Your Values

Values provide us a compass by which we live our lives. Although values are always present, we rarely give them much thought. Much like a compass we use on an unfamiliar hike, values provide us the platform from which we direct our lives. We judge based on the consistency of values utilized by someone.

 

The Barrett Values Center, in 2010, found, in researching more than two thousand private and public institutions in more than sixty countries, that: “Values-driven organizations are the most successful organizations on the planet. They found that values drive the culture as well as contribute to the employees’ fulfillment. In the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, the noted the same outcome in companies they observed over several decades.

 

Martin Seligman, a leader in the positive psychology movement, found, through his questionnaire, that signature strengths and values fundamentally contribute to a meaningful life.

 

I remember, many years ago, thinking that emotions were fleeting and mercurial. They seemed to be missing a key ingredient to living fully.  When I was first introduced to the concept of values I thought they were a wonderful state to aspire to.  Years later, when I identified my core values, I felt a strong resonance and connection to my life. I realized that I could live from my values and when I did, life was clearer and more satisfying, with richer meaning and depth. I realized that they were my compass, the one I had been missing and to which my emotions could not relate.

 

What are your values? How cognizant are you of them on a daily basis?

by focusyourlifetips on May 3, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in life planning
Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by focusyourlifetips on May 3, 2017

https://focusyourlifetip.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/the-importance-of-living-a-meaningful-life-through-your-values/

Family Security is Built on Two Elements: Money and…

Family security is built on two elements: forwarding the determined purpose of the family money and developing the inclusive family mission. We will look at the value to the latter, developing the inclusive family mission.

I’d like to share with you a quote from a book I read. The quote illustrates the role of a mission statement for a family. Stephen R. Covey, the famed author, educator, and motivator in his book Principle Centered Leadership said this:

“Too many families are managed on the basis of instant gratification, not on sound principles and rich emotional bank accounts. Then, when stress and pressure mount, people start yelling, overreacting or being cynical, critical, or silent. Children see it and think this is the way you solve problems-either fight or flight. And the cycles can be passed on for generations.

This is why I recommend creating a family mission statement. By drafting a family constitution, you are getting to the root of the problem.

If you want to get anywhere long-term, identify core values and goals and get the system aligned with these values and goals. Work on the foundation. Make it secure.

The core of any family is what is changeless, what is always going to be there. This can be represented in a family mission statement. Ask yourself, “What do we value? What is our family all about? What do we stand for? What is our essential mission, our reason for being?”

You have been reading my many blogs on the benefits to articulating and developing family values and missions. My family has built and is developing ours. We started back in the mid- 1990s. We see the benefit to doing this.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on Stephen R. Covey’s remarks. He spoke well to the benefits of building a legacy family by developing the family’s core foundation.

I’d love to know your obstacles to putting together your own family mission statement. I’d love to know, if you have a family mission statement. How do you keep it relevant, dynamic and inclusive?

by focusyourlifetips on June 19, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Legacy Family, life planning, Succession Planning
Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by focusyourlifetips on June 19, 2014

https://focusyourlifetip.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/family-security-is-built-on-two-elements-money-and/

Are You Trying to Grow your Leaves Without the Roots? Try this Instead

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, wrote in his book Onward about his return as CEO of the company during a time of economic instability and immense challenges in the company. In the book he said: “Stick to your values, they are your foundation.” He said this in relation to finding, articulating and staying the course in rebuilding Starbucks.

What role do Values have in life? How can they really make a difference when there is always so much to do and so very little time to do it in?

Stephen R. Covey, in his book Principle Centered Leadership, wrote: “from the principles comes wisdom, guidance, power and security to guide you in your relationship with self, family, possessions, work, pleasure, money, enemy, fitness, faith. “ He later wrote: “…to have response-ability and account-ability you have to know who you are and where you want to go.”

And the acclaimed Auschwitz survivor and renowned psychologist Victor Frankl wrote in his classic book Man’s Search for Meaning: “Where conditioning processes have replaced self-transcendence, and meaning and values are denied, manipulation is born.”

Principles and Values have great import in our lives. It’s time to expose them for the great stability, joy, and foundation they give to our lives. What are your core Values? Think of one of them now.
• How does it impact your life?
• From whom did you inherit or receive or model this Value?
• What is important about this Value to you?
• How has this value come to play in your life? Perhaps it was when you needed to make a decision about a relationship, a career move, or how to have a sensitive conversation about a critical or sensitive subject with a friend or loved one.

But we are pushed to quick decisions so we can strike another action, duty, responsibility or decision off the list. Impatience overrides wisdom and expediency overrides understanding. Once again the exalted Value is cast aside in favor of the quick answer. You may have seen that this can lead to unintended consequences that are more challenging to unwind.

Our values/principles/core beliefs have to be part of an intentional life as they form the foundation of success. Howard Schultz recognized the essential nature of this as did Stephen Covey and Victor Frankl. And to drive the point home I will quote from Stephen Covey again, who in the book I mentioned earlier, simply yet profoundly wrote: “To focus on personality before character is to try to grow the leaves without the roots.”

Let me know what you have discovered or remembered about the importance of your Values. I would love to know.

And if you want some help in knowing what your core Values are email grace@focusandsustain.com who will follow up with you to see how we can help you uncover the core of who you are.

by focusyourlifetips on November 21, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by focusyourlifetips on November 21, 2013

https://focusyourlifetip.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/are-you-trying-to-grow-your-leaves-without-the-roots-try-this-instead/