I truly enjoy the process of becoming my best self! While I’m pretty darn good just the way I am, there is an excitement that comes with always seeking the next level of being. Each small step along the way is a victory, one to be acknowledged and celebrated.
Getting to know myself, as part of this process, has become very important to me, as it is impossible to move forward if we have no idea where we are. The following is a list of personal knowledge that I believe is essential to becoming my best self.
1. Values What qualities do we hold most dear? There are so many possible qualities that are deserving of being a core value, however, our particular combination of values helps define who we are. In addition, no matter how many values we actually hold dear and have an emotional investment in, there is a definite priority to those values. It is not enough to figure out what values we ‘value’; we need to understand which ones are most important to us. This will allow us to make our stress-free choices.
2. Beliefs A belief is a mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something or some thought. Our lives are shaped by these beliefs. Even though we accept them as truth or actuality, there is nothing that demands they be real. Unfortunately, mistaken beliefs prevent us from moving forward in different areas of our life. While it may be a challenge, it is absolutely possible to get clear about what beliefs we hold, and to decide whether those beliefs bolster us or not. Again, it’s not enough to know what we believe, we need to understand the impact of that particular belief on our life and to acknowledge that we can indeed change that belief.
3. Standards Standards are the behaviors we hold ourselves to. They denote a point of reference against which we individually compare and evaluate ourselves. They are closely related to our core values. It is quite an enlightening experience to identify exactly what behaviors make you feel good about yourself and allow you to consider yourself “in” integrity.
4. Boundaries Boundaries are the behaviors we hold others to. They represent what we allow others to do in our presence and almost always have a parallel standard. This is because they are related to our deepest values, so it makes sense that we would develop both standards and boundaries for those critical issues in our lives.
5. Role Model QualitiesFor me, a role model quality is an behavior which we hope that others will want to emulate because it represents the quintessence of that quality. I usually ask people what 3 qualities would they like to role model for others, to be an outstanding example of that attribute in action. For me, the top 3 are respect, compassion and wholeness (the quality of being one’s best self). Ordinarily, these 3 qualities could also be described as your top 3 values, the ones that we must live up to in order to feel “in” integrity.