For those who have been reading the blog, it is no surprise that I have been working on my purpose and my values. As I have done this, I have followed a loose process that in hindsight has been instructive to me.
Here are the steps I have taken so far.
- Work with my wife on what we care about most for each other and our family – I cannot be 100% me without them
- Write down our family motto (Climb Mountains) – we wanted something easy to remember
- Write down 3 words that would represent our family values – this is what we want to be known for as Nicholls
- Write down behaviors associated with each of those words – what does this value look like in our lives and the lives of our kids?
- Finally, we produced a phrase to help us reset when we inevitably will fall short of our own expectations of living these values
Brook Cupps taught me the bones of this process and I modified it some based on the needs of my family. There are two important things I learned from this exercise.
- The sequencing of these activities matter. Learning builds on itself.
- This is not a linear process but a cyclical one. My motto, values, and behaviors should be consistently evaluated and improved.
I have yet to research more learning sequencing. Surely there are challenges when going to granular with the sequencing in learning but when thinking about larger areas of improvement there must be a sequence that is more effective than others. For example, to become a great leader you must first understand yourself and how to lead yourself. I do not know what other elements are crucial in learning to become a great leader but plan on studying this to identify the key elements of leadership and the appropriate sequencing.
What is something you have learned recently? Did you notice the sequence? If the sequence had changed, do you think the learning would be the same? Tell me about your insights or write them down in a journal.
