At the end of 2022, I knew I wanted the new year to be different; but who doesn't, right? More importantly, I wanted the end of 2023 to put to shame 2022. So, I began to review my habits and my routines.
In 2022, I had done a good job in determining my values and defining success for myself. Upon analyzing what's most important to me, I had settled that my core values are (in no particular order): faith, family, service, and legacy.
But what does this mean and how will this help me in ensuring 2023 is the best year possible?
Simon Sinek says “true values are how you act when you are at your natural best,” therefore, values ought to be verbs! So, having established my values, I proceeded to ensure they were verbs.
Faith means honoring God with the way I think, the decisions I make, and the impact I have. Having accepted Jesus in my heart at the age of 15, it hasn't always been easy but he's never failed me and I wish to not fail him, but honor him.
Family to me is very important , as I come from a broken home. By the time I was 2 years old, my mother and father had divorced. And my father, due to addiction, was in and out of my life and in and out of jail. Therefore, family to me is important, but it's specifically the family my wife and I are creating. Am I present for my daughter's? Am I loving them the way they need to be loved? Am I available to answer any question transparently, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable?
I am of the belief that the gift and talents that have been deposited in me by God, are not for me to hide away or put on some shelf like one puts a trophy up on a display. Instead, the idea is that I may be of service to as many people possible. Therefore, being of service requires understanding my purpose and working in alignment with God so that having used the gifts, talents and abilities I poses, other's may be lifted.
I know that I can only control the impact I have and not the legacy I leave, but I strive diligently to leave a legacy which will echo in eternity. With the way I live, love, lead, teach, impact, influence, communicate, and show up every day - I can leave an undeniable legacy. Legacy to me has not only to do with when I'm gone from this planet, but when I've left the room.
So, I had successfully established my values and ensured that they were not just words, but verbs. Now what? Now I had to review my habits and ensure that they aligned with the person I wish to be, the type of person that lives out the values I had established.
A sad reality, in 2022, I wasn't dominating the ten life domains. Which only shined a light to the reality that my values were not yet verbs, at least not entirely.
The ten life domains are spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, relational, parental, social, vocational, avocational, and financial. These ten life domains effect all of us if not addressed.
The biggest change I've seen in 2023, is that having understood I wasn't living out my core values in all of the ten life domains, I began to work on a plan of attack. If 2023 is gonna be an amazing year that puts 2022 to shame and has 2024 shaking in it's boots, then it's going to require a version of me that no one (not even I) have seen before.
First order of business, reviewing my habits and routines…