I love Values.
It’s where we start every coaching relationship.
I see them as the foundation for everything else.
In my life too.
But recently I realised that Values isn’t quite the right word for how I see them, what I mean when I think of them, what they feel like they are.
More and more I think of them as ingredients.
For what makes our particular lives, our unique work, the whole of us, feel good - have energy, satisfaction, peace, success, delight…
For what makes us feel like us.
In a yoga class recently, I realised that I couldn’t switch my quads on - “lift at the kneecaps” was something my brain simply couldn’t connect with my body to create.
In some ways it wasn’t a surprise. I’ve been intentionally focusing on other parts for the last few months - my core, my balance, my strength in different places.
All brilliant and needed at the time, and now I need to pay a little more attention to the parts I have forgotten about.
This can be true in our life as well as with our body. At certain points we can be focused on a particular part of it - our work, our health, our past, our future.
Are you forgetting to look back?
So often in life we are focused on the future, and the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
It can feel hard to see how we will get to the destination. We can feel like we are a long way off, and maybe that we will never arrive.
We can end up…
Focusing on how far we have to go, rather than where we are.
Reviewing what we haven’t done, rather than what we have.
Measuring ourselves harshly against expected progress, rather than actual progress.
We can forget to to look behind us to celebrate the journey we’ve already made.
