Do you have a set of core values that guide your thoughts and behaviors? You should! It is better to know who you are than to know where you are going! Your Core Values are the rudder by which you steer your life. They let you know when you are on or off course. Listen as I explain more:

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Show Outline:

My oldest son received a very high honor: his school's Core Values award!
Jim Collins said "it's better to know who you are than to know where you were going."
Athletes know that strengthening core muscles is vital to all athletic performance. These are your abdominal muscles. They control your balance, and posture.
In life, it's just as important to strengthen your core values they define who you are and give you balance and posture.
More than anything else, as a dad, I want to teach my boys to have Core values . I don't care, ultimately, what their political or religious beliefs are, I don't care what they choose as a career, as long as all of these things are in alignment with their own core values.
Honesty. I spent so much of my life living a lie and telling lies took me a long time to get back to the truth.
You can feel it in your soul when you are living according to your core values. You vibrate. You're soul sings. You feel light. It gives you energy and happiness that does not come from anything outside of you. You also know when you are living contrary to your values--you lose energy, you feel a heaviness, darkness within you. Maybe not immediately, but soon after, you know what you did was not in alignment with your values.
My purpose statement is "to love, serve, and add value to the lives of others" I know when I am living according to my purpose. I know when I am not. I also know that when I am living according to my purpose and values, I can be happy and confident regardless of my circumstances or the people I am around. I have learned to simply leave settings in which people are behaving in a way that is contrary to my values. It is not a negative judgement against them. It is a protective action for me, and ultimately a gift to them and the world. When I am always in sync with my values, I improve and everything around me improves--the same is true for you!
When you live according to your core values, you stand out from the crowd. You are different and people notice. That may be uncomfortable, especially for teens. My teen chose to be different, to live by his rules, not his peers. His teachers have noticed that and that is why he won the award. Winning the award was not his intention. Living by his own values was his intention.
Let me be candid. I'm not perfect. My friends/family know my moral failures, the times I've fallen.

Howie Day: "even the best fall down some times"
Vince Lombardy: "Man's greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time he falls"
We are human, none of us are perfect. Strength and evidence of core values is recognizing when you have strayed and taking steps to get back in alignment.


Know your core values. Your non-negotiables. Your deal-breakers (especially you single people out there!). Be willing to be alone a while longer, rather than compromise your values.
Your values don't need to be the same as mine. In fact they should not be the same as mine simply because mine sound good. Do your own soul searching. Discover your uniqueness. Own it. I want my boys to become men who have discovered and embraced who they are, not who their dad told them they should be.

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