When was the last time you stopped to rethink and re-organize your values? Simply put, your core values are your strongest beliefs put into language and written down. Could you pause right now and quickly make a list of 10 core values you use to guide your life? Can you describe how those principles and beliefs help define your personal identity?

The first 3 Challenges in the Mayhem Mindset Process are all about demonstrating the difference between our emotions and our values. It’s just true; we are all are trying to make our most important choices and decisions based on our strongest beliefs. It’s also true it’s natural to be emotional first. It takes practice and intentionally doing the work to organize our values so they can become a tool or a filter for our emotions.

Many times it’s important to capture the negative emotions that will betray us. Sometimes it’s important to dial-up positive emotion, so the people we love know we are connected to them. Most every day, it’s vital to connect our responses to a mindful and thoughtful approach based on our values. Core values are a strong foundation to compete from and a position of strength to live from.

Our values need to be actionable, not just some cool words we write down. They must represent our personal strengths, our emotional weaknesses, and the ideals we are reaching for. When we have done the work to establish our personal identity and connect that to our core values, we have laid the foundation that will allow us to improve as an athlete and develop an authentic performance identity.

Keep Coming Forward
Jim Hensel