Why I'm Taking my Values to London

Before I tell you more about why I’m heading up to London next week to join Janet Murray’s Content Live event, I want to ask you a question:

How do you express your values every day?

Many people have a subconscious awareness of what’s most important to them in life, while others have a crystal clear intent around their values in what they do every single day.

I launched Freestyle Careers on the firm foundation of my highest values: freedom, authenticity, creativity, vitality and love. To me, values provide a touchstone that makes sense of where I’m heading, what I’m choosing and why I’m prioritizing one action over another.

Let’s get clear about what values are. Here are a couple of useful definitions:

‘Principles or standards of behaviour; one's judgement of what is important in life.’ – Oxford English dictionary

 ‘Values are the energetic drivers of our aspirations and intentions.’ – Richard Barrett

It’s Richard Barrett’s definition that really chimes with my own take on values.

When I work with clients on their career change it usually becomes clear very early into our coaching sessions that some of their highest values have been trampled on, squashed out of existence, or clash significantly with their current or previous careers. This is why they feel at best unsettled, and at worst, limited, trapped and increasingly stressed by their working life. 

There is often a vital mis-match - between the job or the organisation and their own values, which drains their self-worth, purpose and authenticity. Very often they know they no longer ‘fit’, but can’t quite see where that divergence is rooted.

Over time, I’ve made good friends with my values, find ways to express and strengthen them every day and have created posters to provide a visual reminder to nudge me back on track when I’m feeling restless and sensing incongruence. I stand in front of them and it becomes clear which of my values is getting a hammering. I know I need to address that in order to get back in balance.

Values in Action

So it’s not surprising that when I’m preparing to attend an important event, I view it through the lens of my strongest values. 

Next week I’m off to Janet Murray’s Content Live event in London and I’m all set to learn from some of the top content creators and marketers in the country today. I’m hoping to develop a winning content strategy for the year ahead and come away, as the event hash tag express it so well, with #2019Sorted!

When I created my career change coaching business just over a year ago, I had little idea of just how much I didn’t know about running a business! But I’m an avid learner, even more so when it’s serving a purpose that enriches me and expresses who I am. So here’s my quick values doodle to show why I’m prioritising my learning and investing in some great expertise by attending Content Live ~

CREATIVITY – I hope to generate ideas and create new ways of presenting the Freestyle story to reach more people and help them build inspiring lives. I expect to be surprised and feel bursts of innovation and mash up disparate ideas in new ways. Buzzing!

LOVE – community and new friends. I love being in a room with people who share a common goal – strange magic happens. I love the experience, and find the relationships that evolve are meaningful and often long-lasting. We’re in it together!

FREEDOM – being able to choose what I learn, when I learn it, from whom and prioritise why I need to learn, are all choices I am making for myself. I’m investing in myself and my future and have complete autonomy over that decision. That is freedom in a nutshell. It’s no coincidence that I chose Freestyle as my business name!

AUTHENTICITY – this is who I am, a career change coach building a business to help more people create a working life that really inspires them. I’m on a journey as a businesswoman and feel very happy to be absorbing what I need. I’m imperfect and loving the growth!

VITALITY – the energy from other participants and the brilliant speakers at this event will energise my plans, and, being an extrovert, I love being around positive and engaged people. They stoke my fire and make me feel alive and ‘on purpose’. I’m going to be skipping away from this event with armfuls of ideas, bursting to put them into action.

A Values Shot

Overall, along with the knowledge, strategies, tactics and know-how of creating resonant content that reaches my audience, I know this event is going to give me an additional and less obvious takeaway – a values boost! My values are without doubt the fuel that drives me on to make dreams materialize and which allow me to be comfortable in my own skin.

How about you?

Do you know which values matter most to you? If you’d like to explore this some more and gain clarity over what exactly is making you feel unsettled and unfulfilled at work or in life, take a look at my Values Discoverysessions. You’ll emerge with a clear understanding of your highest values, what they mean to you and how you can use them to make important decisions in your life. Just drop me a message to arrange a no-obligation chat.

And yes, I’ll be writing another blog about what I learnt at Content Live – and have no doubt that there will be some big surprises to report on!