On Thursday June 18, Don shared with us his presentation entitled “ I Believe “

Don began by sharing that we all have our own beliefs.  The truths that Don believes may not be your own beliefs, but these beliefs are true according to Don.  We all have our own sets  of values and beliefs.  And we are the sum of our own beliefs. 

Knowing and living your own beliefs may be difficult, but it is your only way to your true self. And an alignment of your own beliefs will help you get through many of life’s storms. 

Don also had us participate in an exercise about finding your authentic self. He handed out a sheet with a title of “ Fast Values Exercise “ at the top. 

There were approximately 93 choices on this list, and our job was to choose and circle all of the words that most appropriately described us. 

Next we selected 5 or 6 values that you exhibit in everyday life and 5 or 6 that you would like to be a bigger part of your life.

My chosen top five words this year were Family, humour, Spirituality, learning and travel. 

Next came 9 questions to answer.

While probably incomplete, it is a starting point of defining who you are.  And once you know your values, live it.  Be that person.  Quit denying who you really are and embrace all of you.  We are all some percent boring normal, but it is the rest of the story that makes us individuals.

All of this is you, and put together, is your authentic self. Don then explained how his values had put him in conflict with his last couple of jobs, eventually causing an internal rift that was bad enough that he needed to move on to be true to his authentic self, and how his values had steered him into his current job.

He also gave us a list of eight areas of our life, and our job was to give each one a rating anywhere between the numbers 1-10.  The number 10 being the one you feel that you are excelling in at this time of your life, and the number 1 being the one that needs the most work and at the bottom of the score rankings. It’s a great exercise and can tell us a lot about ourselves. We also gave ourselves a letter grade on how well we were doing aligning each area of our life with our authentic self.

The areas were:

Emotions

Fun/Relaxation

Finances

Intelect ( not how smart you are, but what are you learning today/this week/month)

Career

Physical Health

Social Connections

Spiritual Beliefs