{"id":108,"date":"2014-05-09T13:23:44","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T13:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=108"},"modified":"2014-08-09T17:05:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T17:05:32","slug":"33-figure-out-your-core-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=108","title":{"rendered":"33. Figure out your core value"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Notice I didn\u2019t say what was important to you. By core value, I mean something that defines how you want to live your life. That if this value isn\u2019t driving your choices, you\u2019re going to be unhappy. Lie awake at night worrying. Regretting choices. Stress eating. Behavior that you know is detrimental to your overall well being.<\/p>\n<p>So fill it in: <strong>If I am not ______, I won\u2019t\/can\u2019t be truly happy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>One of my core values is being independent, particularly financially. I don\u2019t want:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To feel like I could not\u00a0quit a job I hate because of bills.<\/li>\n<li>To be accumulating debt that just gets bigger and feels insurmountable.<\/li>\n<li>To not be in control of my spending<\/li>\n<li>To be a burden on my parents or loved ones.<\/li>\n<li>To be afraid of the future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You might say lots of people have that as a goal. But this is a core value, something I live by. So it means<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I don\u2019t buy things I don\u2019t need.<\/li>\n<li>I hold myself accountable to my financials. Dollars in &#8211; dollars out should be positive.<\/li>\n<li>I buy on sale.<\/li>\n<li>I do it myself if I can.<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t constantly upgrade: shoes, services, electronics, cars, etc.<\/li>\n<li>I try and live by the saying \u201cUse it up, wear it out, make do, do without\u201d<\/li>\n<li>If I spend money, it has to pass the reasonable test. For me, it\u2019s reasonable to spend $4 on an almond croissant. It is not reasonable to spend $10 on a piece of cake.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Is it hard? Sometimes. But I would not, could not trade this value <strong>without making myself unhappy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, when it seemed like everyone was joining start ups, I\u00a0 was approached about joining one. Like many startups, it had\u00a0very smart people, some very deep pockets\u2026.with the up side being\u00a0 a big payout later (hopefully), but in the meantime, very little money.\u00a0 While tempting, not having enough income was not consistent with my core value. I declined the offer, and stayed at my\u00a0company.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately for my friend, the start up didn\u2019t take off.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if your core value is to be entrepreneurial, you\u2019d probably make a different decision and be happy about it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s<strong> your<\/strong> core value. It\u2019s personal. But when you figure it out, it\u2019s a helpful compass to guide you in making the right decisions based on what\u2019s important to you and <strong>how you want to live<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>BTW, it\u2019s almost impossible to be happy without some level of financial independence. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship\/dp\/0143115766\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407603841&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=your+money+or+your+life\">Your Money or Your Life<\/a> is a great book to read to get motivated. It totally changed how I thought about money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notice I didn\u2019t say what was important to you. By core value, I mean something that defines how you want to live your life. That if this value isn\u2019t driving your choices, you\u2019re going to be unhappy. Lie awake at night worrying. Regretting choices. Stress eating. Behavior that you know is detrimental to your overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happiness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>33. 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