Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. - George Bernard Shaw

Week 3 - Defining Core Values

Recognizing a gap

Have you sat down and truly defined what matters to you? Have you defined what drives you forward and what you seek to find in people? As a business owner, athlete, and person - I had never sat down and defined what matters to me and why. Being able to say that I don’t agree with something on my own principles would have been impossible until just a few weeks ago.

Compiling and Defining

If you’re not familiar with the ongoing work I’m doing - I’m taking part in an 8 week course on defining more of who I am. This is with the help of Nora Abell who has been essential to uncovering my skills and ultimately helping me understand my strengths, weaknesses, and how to harness the power of them both. This work has helped me define my core values and in taking the time to uncover them it has helped me lead better. It has also helped me better understand what it is I value, and most importantly - what I bring to the table as a husband, coach, friend, and leader.

In my last Mile Marker post - I shared my Core Triggers and how they can tear me down in an almost instinctual and silent way. Core Values are the places you live from best and are in opposition of your Core Triggers - Your values bring you up and allow you to lean on them when selling, making decisions, and moving you or your business forward.

To write up how to define ones Core Values would take days. Pulling back the layers of the onion revealed a good bit in our sessions. This is where the value of this work lies - in uncovering and defining who you are at your center. I’m sharing mine and a little bit of the why below.

Core Values

You can drill down beyond 6 Core Values but your first 6 matter most and are the greatest definition of who you are first.

1. Independent, Strong, and Capable | Empowerment
   I am inherently capable when I work hard, show up at my best, and lean in for others. I do this for my friends and my team. I appreciate it most when my athletes, my friends, and my staff show up at their best. I believe that people are capable of anything they put their mind to.

2. Do what you say you’re going to do | Respect
   I value when people follow through on a promise. Showing up on time, being where you said you would, and hitting your mark. I feel disrespected when people don’t do what they say they will. This means showing up at your highest and best every day, and following through on your word. Your word is your honor.

3. Taking Ownership of the Result | Ownership
   It’s on you at the end of the day. When you break it down you can see how application of the small details and your attitude are fundamental to your personal development and success. If you own the result - good or bad you allow yourself to come at the world at your highest and best.

4. Put your best self forward | Honor
   I value the idea of a personal standard and bringing that standard to the forefront of everything I do. When I commit, I do so fully and without intention of reversal. I come to practice with the same intention as races - with the goal of putting my best self forward. I value when people can check their ego and self doubt at the door. I value when people show up listening, vulnerable, and feeling capable of themselves and others. Team is built from within.

5. Apply the Small Details | Application
   When we apply the small details we connect the big picture together. I know that the small details are what matter most to me and are key to long term development. Doing the work required and application of the small details will lead to big payoffs. Apply the small details and trust the process. I recognize that process and application are key to repeatable successes.

6. Community that values and loves each other | Community
   I value when people can show up vulnerable and share when they’re not at their best. I recognize that we will all struggle at some point and when you lean in for your community, they lean in for you. Show love, devotion, and loyalty to those who show it to you. My ideal community is one that allows me to show up at my best or at my worst and will accept me just the same. Surround yourself with people that are going in the direction you want to head.

Empowerment, Respect, Ownership, Honor, Application, and Community

These 6 things are what matter to me most and are what I value most about the people in my circles around me. I am not myself when I can’t lead or live to these values. Only after working through this exercise did I identify how deeply I connected with these words and these values. I love being empowered and empowering others to achieve beyond what they thought possible. I love earning respect and being recognized for what I bring to the table. It was when I looked back and found where I had my biggest moments of success, I could boil these moments down into each of these values and this is where I am built, renewed, and recognized. What more could you want?