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Discovering Your Core Values: How to Figure out What You Stand For
By Carlon Haas | August 22, 2007
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When I was a business consultant, the first thing I asked business owners was whether their companies had “religion”. After reassuring them that I was not some sort of cult leader bent on converting them, I explained to them what I meant.
IBM founder Tom Watson once said, every business needs a religion. By religion, he meant knowing your core values and beliefs. And then taking those values and beliefs and crafting it into a powerful message.
It is a very powerful thing to have in business. But even more so, it is even more powerful to have your own “religion”. Whether you are a member of an organized religion or not, you still have to know that you stand for. You need to ask yourself what your core values are instead of the ones imposed upon you.
So, how do you do that?
A Technique for Discovering What You Stand For
I’ll give you the same technique I once gave to businesspeople for your personal use. I learned this technique from the legendary copywriter Gary Bencivenga. He calls it the Credo technique. Credo is Latin for “I believe.” If any of you were raised Catholic (for full disclosure, I was not) you might be familiar with a Credo.
The Credo technique involves actually spelling out what you believe. You’ll be amazed at the power of this technique. Actually spelling out your beliefs and implementing them in your personal development will help you sort out which kinds of things to look for. It can give you focus and vision. And when you know what you stand for, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to find like-minded people ready to stand with you.
As an example, I thought I’d share with you some of my core beliefs. This is by no means all of them, but they are pretty fundamental to what I stand for.
I believe most problems stem our inability see reality as it is—both our inward reality and outward reality.
Cultivating awareness of what is objectively true is the key to personal growth. I believe that our failure to objectively see ourselves in an honest way prohibits us from growing. So, it is critical to find a method to see reality as it is. My personal method is Vipassana meditation.
I believe in testing your assumptions
Most limits are self-imposed because of the assumptions we make about ourselves and others. By testing those assumptions, we prosper.
I believe that many of the things we do and believe come from our culture and not from any conscious intention
Having lived abroad for many years has taught me that our “values” and “norms” are by and large cultural rather than personal. Hence, the assumptions we mostly test are the ones given to us through our cultural upbringing.
I believe that good decision-making starts with logic and reason.
Though much is made of thinking with the “gut” or intuition, human reasoning is the one thing that separates humans from animals. Using critical thinking skills will not always lead you to the right decision, but I believe it gives you the best chance of making that right decision. And if reason were so unimportant marketers wouldn’t try so hard to get us to turn it off (and they do try…REAL hard).
I believe that the more simple your life, the more satisfied you will be
Most possessions we possess do not bring us any happiness or fulfillment byut are a means to an end. By making things simple and not pouring your time and energy into things you give yourself time to grow and prosper.
I believe that it’s OK to be contradictory
I embrace my own contradictions. Foolishly striving for consistency leads to bad decisions and self-imposed limitations. Understanding that consistency does not equal truth was a big step forward in my personal development.
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Topics: Problem-solving/Critical Thinking, Success Mindset |
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3 Responses to “Discovering Your Core Values: How to Figure out What You Stand For”
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August 26th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I came to your blog via a link at Brain Based Business. I like the approach that you took in presenting your core values.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:56 am
Thank you for your comments and coming to the blog. Drop by anytime~
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
[…] you know yourself, you know your core values. Carlon Haas’ of Possess Less, Exist More Discovering Your Core Values: How To Figure Out What You Stand For shows you how to achieve such […]