Average people just throw themselves at life, like a dog chasing a passing car, and wonder why they never seem to catch anything, or keep anything worthwhile.
Superior men and women invest the time necessary to develop absolute clarity about themselves and what they really want, like designing a detailed blueprint for a building, before they begin construction.
There is a direct relationship between the level of clarity you have about who you are and what you want, and virtually everything you accomplish in life.
What are your values today with regard to your work and your career? Do you believe in the values of integrity, hard work, dependability, creativity, cooperation, initiative, ambition, and getting along well with people?
Before considering the benefits of effective planning, perform the self-audit on the next page, and identify your strengths and areas for improvement with regard to planning.
What have you accomplished in your past life that has given you the greatest sense of pride and satisfaction? These answers will give you good indications of your true values.
Dale Carnegie once wrote, โTell me what gives a person his greatest feeling of importance, and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life.โ What makes you feel important? What raises your self-esteem? What increases your sense of self-respect and personal pride?
There are some insightful ways to help you to determine your true values. First of all, you can look at your past. How have you behaved under pressure in the past? What choices did you make with your time or money when you were forced to choose?
Your values determine your beliefs, about yourself and the world around you. If you have positive values, such as love, compassion and generosity, you will believe that people in your world are deserving of these values, and you will treat them accordingly.
You can imagine your personality by thinking of a target with concentric rings, from the inside to the outside. Your personality is also made up of five rings, starting from the center, your values, and radiating outward to the next circle, your beliefs.