Let me prove to you that this idea of identity and core values is fundamental, and you use it every day, whether you realize it or not. There's no mature, clear-minded person who isn't trying to make their most important choices and decisions based on their strongest beliefs. We all do it. It's fundamental. It's just true.
Have you exercised your freedom and accepted the responsibility for defining yourself for establishing your identity as an individual and choosing your core values, or have you allowed yourself to be defined? The truth is either you will do the work to define yourself, or someone or something else will define you. Whether it’s another person, momentum or emotion, if you don’t do the work, you will undoubtedly be relinquishing freedom.
REMEMBER THIS BEFORE YOU READ this post! Adversity in my life is a tricky thing to try and compare to the adversity in your life. The worst thing each one of us has faced is the worst thing we have faced. WHILE you read this, don’t judge me or compare my adversity to yours. We all have problems and challenges that take everything we have. If you get tripped up comparing, you will miss the point I’m trying to make about Defining yourself. Don’t spend time trying to decide if I’m right or wrong about my core value of Faith. If you do, you will ALSO miss my point.
PLEASE Look for a PERSPECTIVE that you can use to strengthen your own strongest beliefs or core values in a way that authentically makes YOU stronger!
What are you doing today to take action concerning that problem you’ve been avoiding!? Do you have the strength to do something about it right now at this moment as you read this !?!
Or… is your mind stuck in the past with worry or regret about it, or are you lost in a fog of imagination about the future, daydreaming of what it should be?
ACT NOW! Right now, choose to challenge that situation and DO SOMETHING about it!
Are you daily testing and strengthening your core values, the truth in your life, or are you unwittingly strengthening a flawed or underdeveloped, or unproven ideology? How do you know?
Let me play the devil's advocate in this blog: Are you telling me you’ve got everything right, locked down when it comes to your values? In my opinion, if you answered that with a confident yes, you're wrong.
Be intentional with the time you have before you head into the storm of a competition. Hopefully, (hope is not a plan, Ha) you have developed and trained the proper mindset and worked out HOW you want to think. HOW to think is more important than WHAT to think because, simply, it comes first.
In the Mayhem Mindset Process, If you are properly prepared for the opportunity and adversity you're going to face, then you will have done the work to know who you BE (Identity/Values/Routine), and you will have developed the mindset necessary to control your emotions and get present and clear your mind.
I just turned 53; I make the joke I’m almost dead, “I’m on the back nine of my life; I just don’t know what hole I’m playing.” Right off, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to be dark or make light of death. However, I am looking at my life with the perspective that places extreme value on living in the present and reminding myself that my time on this planet is limited and to keep moving forward. I believe that every human being was created with a purpose. Each of us has something positive to contribute that is critically important to our family’s, community, society, and even the world.
I re-aim each day by reminding myself it’s my individual responsibility to facilitate my own freedom and to protect the freedom of the people that look to me for strength. I recite my personal code and hold myself accountable to what I have established as my personal identity and the core values I have chosen for my life. I recognize the opportunity I have to play offense and make a contribution, and that sense of purpose resonates in my heart and motivates me.
In order to become 100% of the person you were created to be, you must constantly be challenging your personal truths physically, mentally, and spiritually. Life should be a continual process of improving yourself and honing your mindset skills through the adversity and opportunity in your life. We all know nothing sustainable or lasting in this life comes without paying the price for it.
Here is what I’m thinking about: I believe that I am not my ideas; I believe I am a core set of values. My values (strongest beliefs) are the foundation of the filter I use to make choices and decisions for my life. I am continually growing my values based on my life experiences and my desire to develop my character continually. I am constantly filtering ideas, conversations, what I read, and what I listen to to find truth and apply it in life.
Here are my thoughts: First, creating a vision for my life requires I set my ego aside. When I say ego, I mean controlling my emotions and giving up my need to be right so I can initially think strategically. For me casting a vision or re-aiming my life starts by looking for the Truth in any given situation. I failed many times in this endeavor and allowed my emotions and my need to be right to control my thought process or the conversation with less than desirable results.
I have a rule for my life: I only look back at my life to measure how far I’ve come. I am always momentarily overwhelmed by the mistakes I have made and the regrets I have, and that’s a good thing for me. It motivates me. More importantly, my heart is filled with gratitude for the forgiveness and the grace I’ve been given, even though I certainly didn’t deserve any of it.
Don’t be so spiritually minded that you are no earthly good. I believe your life was meant to be more than a religious summary of heaven and hell. Your fight for your truth should define your life; it’s all about what happens between the day you are born and whatever you chose to believe in after your body dies, what happens in the middle.
Some people spend so much time lost in regret that they never are able to live in the present. Some people are so worried or afraid about the future that they miss the meaning their life was supposed to bring them today. Many of us are not the influencer of our own lives; instead, the momentum and the moment's emotion hold power, so many people aren’t aware enough to see life is happening to them.
S&H
Keep Coming Forward!
Jim Hensel
