V=Values

Your values will determine what you value. A strange sentence but a perfectly logical statement. Then it follows that what you value should determine what you do with your time. Interestingly, I am finding as I take a long look at what I do with my time, the things I value and the things I am choosing to do are not always in alignment. I have known about the book Good to Great by Jim Collins for some time. I know about his concept of the "stop doing list" but knowing does not always create doing.

Sometimes we have to stand back for awhile, take a long look at our choices, what do we do with our time, our money, our energy, in summary what are we doing with our one precious life? Are the choices we are making minute by minute and hour by hour consistent with what we value and if not why not?

For me, a large overarching pattern burst in to my concious mind. I waste things. Time, energy, money you name a resource and I am sure I waste it. I waste the resources on things that bring me little essence and thus things that eventually give me no value. A stark revelation.

What comes next? For me, I need to have a meeting with myself and determine what are my timeless values. Then, which activities are not in alignment with those values and therefore must be abandoned all together, no matter how much I have invested in them to date. And, I must understand the way of thinking which is driving my choices. This piece is the part that has always held me back. What has changed? I started taking this course, by my mentor and friend Jennie Marlow. The exercises are pushing me to examine my choices and how they are driven by my thinking.
(Panda Sue, whose birthday is today and whose companionship I value immensely)