At the core of it all…

Every successful business knows that employees and projects need to align with the company’s core values. Core values are put in place to define what is at the essence of the business we do. In our culture, core values are a term used in the business world, almost exclusively. Why is that? Why is core value language not used at the centre of all defined human groupings: the self, the family, the community? This is a blog dedicated to providing inspiration and tools for embedding core values deep into every aspect of our lives.

What Are Core Values?

Core values are the guideposts that define our character. They are both descriptive of who we are and aspirational of who we hope to be. Often, core values are seen as gentle platitudes and empty words written in an employee handbook and completely ignored. But they are much more powerful than that. Tethering ourselves to values that inspire us and encapsulate who we are provides us with a North Star to align with and deep purpose for personal growth and development. This is not fluffy stuff. This is deeply intentional living. This is offering the world a consistent personal brand. This is laser focus and ferocious determination. Core Value living is for people committed to bringing the best of who they are to the world.

How Do We Begin?

The tools in this blog are so simple and so powerful. Truly a bit of reflection, discipline and creativity are all it take to live a core value based life. Start wherever you are. Here’s where I started: When my two daughters were very young, I felt the significant weight of raising humans who I couldn’t help but experience as extraordinary. I was troubled by questions such as “how do I help these beautiful humans flourish?” or more accurately, “how do I not mess these beautiful humans up?”. We introduced the idea of having family core values as a way of building our family’s culture and giving them something deeper to cling to, no matter what waves may crash on us. And waves DID crash on us. Because life is full of crashing waves that toss us about. But our core values have been North Stars we continually point ourselves back to. They are who we are, what we offer each other, what we offer the world, and what we open-handedly accept back from the world. I have lived this way now for a decade, with a clear and strong alignment to my core values of Kindness, Gratitude and Adventure and I have seen this practice provide me with a powerful engagement in my life and intentionality that makes me proud of who I am. My daughters, who are now entering their teenage years are deeply committed to these core values as well as exploring the values that align with them on a personal level.

It is my deep belief that every person, in every age and stage of life, can receive benefit personally, relationally and professionally from a commitment to core value living.

To becoming Core Valued.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.