31 Days Reflections Days 3-6

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Even though I am not sharing my responses to the various assignments via the 31 Days to Reset Your Life Challenge I am still participating in the challenge. I feel a lot of it is personal and I do not want to share EVERYTHING publicly (right now). I am documenting it all in my composition notebook. I will give you an overview of what we have done so far and how it has affected me.

Day 3: Identify your values. Earlier in my professional career, I attended a retreat at my job. We did a workshop about values and  morals. I remember being 22, and my  list of values were very superficial. My co-worker/friend was surprised at my list because it was all about money, wealth, fame, power, and respect. Her list was really simple love, happiness, family, and friends. I looked at her list and thought "WTF?!"Lame. Lol. I could not imagine someone valuing those things. My mindset at that age was completing different from what it is now. I wanted to be on top of the world with my money, power, and respect- Eff everybody else. Sad but true.

5 years later I am completitng a value assignment and I realize how much I have grown since then. My values are completely different now than they were then. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. As I type this now, I am thinking.. "Am I the same person?" "Did something happen in my life that made me change my outlook?"

My values now (in no particular order):

• Success
• Giving back to others 
• Continuous learning/education
• Ability to travel
• Financial Stability
• Relationships (romantic, family, and friends)

As you can see this is a big difference from the money, power, respect (I guess I thought I was a member of The Lox) fame, and wealth. I grew and those things no longer mean the same to me. I want to be successful no doubt but I also want to use my success to help others. It's ok to be in love and have relationships (romantic). Back then, I could care less about all of that. I just wanted money. I had just graduated from college and I was trying to be a balla. Ha. 

 Day 4  assignment: Envision your values in action. 

1. Am I currently living out my values?
2. What do my values look like in action?

For #1 we had to rate on a scale 1- 10 how we felt we were acting out that particular value in your life. Sadly to say, all of mine were low except continuous learning/education and giving back to others. Despite my no longer being in school I am an avid reader. I READ ALL THE TIME!!! So I am constantly learning and expanding my mind. I volunteer weekly and I use social media to raise awareness for various issues.

 My other values... um naw... I am working on being a success. But I guess the term "success" is subjective. I have been told I was successful but I don't think so because I know I can do better. I am unable to travel right now because of finances. My financial stability is dependent upon me. I have the means to do better but am I doing better?? No. Lazy. Last but not least my relationships. I am working on them. I love my friends and family but I am closer to my friends than I am to my family. I really would like to work on that. My romantic relationship is improving (still working on that).

Day 5: personal mission statement. I did not participate in this task because I developed a mission statement for my life years ago when I read the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey. (Wonderful, wonderful book. I suggest you read it). The mission statement I wrote then is still relevant to my life and it was no need for me to change it. 

Day 6: Life Map. I haven't started this one yet. I will work on it once I finish this blog post but I can not wait to get started on it. (Actually, by the time you read this post my Life Map will be completed). 

Thanks for taking this journey with me as I get myself together and make the changes in my life!!!

I worked on this during the night and came back and included it AFTER I wrote the post.