I’ve been thinking of my life as a business. Without getting too carried away with the analogy – after all, life’s way more than business – it gives me a helpful frame, along with patterns and practices, to draw from. Rather than think of a business that makes money, I think of a business that creates value (the mark of an enduring business.) In this case, value for yourself and others.

Unleash a version of your best self — quickly find your purpose, values, and personal success patterns.

This is a follow up post to my previous post, Living Your Process. I’ve had enough folks ask me how to map out their success process that I’ll share some more prescriptive guidance. It’s a work in progress, but it’s enough to share for now. The big idea with living your process is that it helps you make the most of what you’ve got. It’s about living with passion and playing to your strengths. It’s also about living your values whether it’s at work or at play. It’s about knowing what fulfills you and what sparks you each day. It’s about living from the inside out and leading yourself first.

I’m a fan of “living your process.” To put it another way, this is about “approach over results.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of results. The problem is you can’t control all the events in your life or what happens to you. In life, you control your attitude and response … and it’s not what happens to you, but how you react.

It’s hard to live your values if you don’t know what they are. My dictionary defines a value as “something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable.” That sounds about right. Clarifying your values is one of the first steps towards knowing yourself. You would think you know yourself after all these years, but a lot of things get in the way. For example, maybe you never took the time to write down your top five values. Or maybe, you got caught up in what you think you “should” value or what other people scripted for you. Either way, now’s the time to figure out your values.

Your mission, vision and values are the foundation for your company’s success. It’s how you communicate your unique value, set goals and priorities, and create a compelling future. It’s ultimately your gauge for success (are you accomplishing your mission and moving towards your vision?)  In A Simple Statement: A Guide to Nonprofit Arts Management and Leadership, Jamie Grady writes about vision, mission, and values.
Creating Your Mission and Vision
The key steps to creating your mission and vision are:

Identify the values of the organization. You find these by observing how employees spend …

Organizational values guide your organization’s thinking and actions.  You can think of your organizational values in terms of dimensions: prosocial, market, financial, achievement, and artistic.  Your values are your corporate culture.  When it comes to culture and values, actions speak louder than words.  To figure out your organizational values, see what people spend their time on and what they talk about.
In A Simple Statement: A Guide to Nonprofit Arts Management and Leadership, Jamie Grady writes about organizational values:
Key Take AwaysHere’s my key take aways:

Define what matters.  I think the reason …