What are your values?

Colleagues,

Recapping:

• Epiphany 1: There is not enough time
• Epiphany 2: We choose where we invest our time
• I chose to spend time with Lance learning to roll in a kayak and to develop great training materials for next week. I chose to not put in the irrigation system for my raised beds.

 
Before sharing the third epiphany, I want to disclose something that is deeply personal and for which I carry regrets.
 
I have always encouraged my colleagues and students to put family first. I proclaimed that I did, and I did my best to attend all of the kids’ events and special occasions. However, I passed on so many opportunities to make memories with my kids, or to be there before they needed me. This doesn’t make me an awful parent or person, but it does mean that despite my proclamations, I valued professional excellence above taking the extra time to be more present for my kids.
 
Epiphany 3: My choices reflect my values.
 
If epiphany two is liberating, epiphany three is downright scary.
 
It is easy to proclaim a value, but what we choose to do and not do speaks more loudly than our words. 
 
Here is a reflective activity for you this weekend:

1. Before you leave work today, make a list of your most important personal values.
2. Sunday evening reflect on what you did on the weekend. Compare what you did and did not do to what you said your values were.
3. Where there is a misalignment, interrogate it. Figure out what’s going on and why. Clarify your values and think about how to bring more alignment.

 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick