Before we get into a totally easy way that anyone can begin adjusting their life so it is more in line with their values, I want to remind everyone that the How To Be Alive Master Class begins by tele-seminar in only three days. All the info is here. So hurry up and take your chance to join a group of like-minded people who want to make their lives more in line with their values. Find out more and enroll here!
Now, here is one of the strategies we will be covering in the the class which I hope you will find helpful whether you join the class or not:
Many of us don’t get started aligning our lives with our values because we start by thinking too big and feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. So, in moving towards a values-oriented life, don’t worry about fixing the whole world. Don’t worry about your whole life. Instead, think about the tiny relationships with the world that make up your life. One at a time, you can change those relationships, and one day you will wake up and find yourself living a better life in a better personal world.
Now, don’t make hard work of this. Just take ten minutes and use an old scrap of paper or type on your phone. Make a list of your relationships to the world. Not in any particular order. In fact, the order in which they come to you might in itself reveal something important to you.
Write down the relationships through which you get your food. Your clothing. Your shelter. Your money. Your friendships. Your sex. Your meaning. Also the relationships through which you assert influence on government and institutions. The relationships through which you give what you want to give and any others that come to mind.
Now look at this list and ask yourself what about each of those relationships gives you security–what you need for yourself–and what gives you meaning–what you give to the world? Which of the relationships gives you both? Which gives you neither? Are there any relationships with the world you could eliminate to replace with more meaningful relationships?
Let’s take one example of a relationship with the world–food. Suppose you get your food at the grocery store and you hate it. You worry about the quality of the food and the way that the workers are treated. Shopping there neither feels best for you nor best for the world you want to live in.
What could you do in the next week to improve that relationship. Could join a food coop, find a healthfood store that is invested in its community, go to the farmers’ market? Could you plan to do that just once?
Of course, I’m not saying food is the relationship everyone wants to change first. Just choose one relationship that sticks out for improvement from the list you just made. What is the easy, immediate thing you can do today? If you did one easy thing about that relationship each day for the next week, what would those easy things be? Do them.
I hope this exercise helps get you on a path towards a more values driven life. It comes from my book How To Be Alive and is one of the things we will cover in the How To Be Alive Master Class, which starts in only three days. Find out more and enroll here.