Karma Builder: Today's Karmic Workout – Settle Your Accounts
Today's Exercise: Settle Your Accounts
[Preparatory Note: you can actually do this exercise with s spread sheet, but paper works just as well. You are going to prepare a ledger with two columns. The first column is titled "My Values". The second column is "Effectiveness Rating". Begin to fill in your ledger by listing the things that you believe in and your ethical, religious and moral values. Put them in order of priority with the most important ones at the top of the list. This will actually take more thought than you think. You might even notice, since we have spilled the beans on the effectiveness rating to come, that your values change as you consider the rating that you will have to give. DON'T CHEAT. Simply, list your values and things that you say you are about in order of priority and let the exercise work on you. ]
Prepare your values ledger with two columns. Mark one column "My Values" and the other "Effectiveness".
Take your time thinking about what your values really are without considering whether you are living into them or not. The idea is to take an inventory and physically write down what you believe in. Writing these values down is very important. Writing gives your values real presence in the physical world.
When you are satisfied with your value list, set it aside for an hour. Return to you regular routine. You will probably keep thinking about your values, but try to separate making the list from performing the evaluation.
Return to your list and start rating what percent of the time do you uphold each value in the first column. Move quickly through the list. Your first impression is likely to be the best.
As you rate your effectiveness at fulfilling each value, ask yourself what others who know you would say. Your rating is based on 0% to 100% effective. This is a preventative measure that will reduce the amount of self-delusion in the exercise although it will not eliminate it entirely. Try to be as objective as possible. You are not going to show this to anyone, so it is really a matter between you and your conscience.
When you are done with your effectiveness evaluation, average the percentages to give yourself a total score.
Spend at least 5 minutes contemplating the outcome of your effectiveness evaluation.
Ask yourself what your life would be like if you were perpetually aware of your your values effectiveness rating as you went through life.
Training Note:
Human beings love to make up stories about themselves. We make high-mined speeches to ourselves in the shower or in front of the mirror of what we stand for and imagine debates and conversations that we don't really have that depict ourselves to ourselves with righteous and even sanctimonious furor. But when push comes to shove, we are creatures of the path of least resistance. We do not stand up for co-workers; we do not volunteer to feed the poor – we just play that guy on TV in our minds. For most of us, what we believe and how we live is a mismatch. If we look at the principles that really guides our behavior we see a completely different person. Laziness, self-concern, greed and a host of other less respectable values show up in our vapor trail. How can we be so disconnected from ourselves? It is easy. We don't keep track.
Karmic Benefits:
Taking Inventory Is An Chance To Take Stock: rarely do we stop and take time out of the hustle of our lives to really think about what we believe in. Because we do not stop and think about it very often, we do not ground ourselves in these principles firmly enough to grow roots into them. Taking an inventory of your values may be disappointing at the beginning, but it is the first step toward identifying our values and then consciously standing behind them. This can change the course of your life.
You Are Not Who You Say You Are: our self-assessments usually cut in one of two ways, but are rarely accurate. Our value effectiveness rating is mostly likely either too optimistic or too self-effacing. While objectivity is nearly impossible for human beings in detached circumstances, a snow flake has a greater chance on the surface of the sun than we have of being objective about ourselves. This is particularly true about assessing our performance in accord with our values and principles. But this exercise is not meant for objective evaluation. It is meant to create insight. What we are really trying to notice here is the conversation in our minds about values and principles – or the lack of a conversation! We want to tune into excuses and rationales for why we do not live up to our own standards. We want to hear ourselves make the case for why we do live up to our own standards. Just having values on your mind gives them influence over the way you live. Behavior always follows what's on your mind.
There Is Nothing To Do But Think About It: when we notice that we do not measure up to our own standards, we usually start beating up on ourselves. This is a waste of time. First of all, self-demeaning thinking just prompts us to think about our standards less so that we don't have to be mad at ourselves. The purpose of this exercise is simply to place your values and your effectiveness assessment on the top of your "awareness pile" so that our values start to shape our behavior through the ordinary process of cognition. There really isn't anything to do other than think about what you want to be and look for opportunities to express the best ideas of your thinking.
It May Be Fiction, But It Is One Heck Of A Karmic Workout.
Read The Lotus Blossom, D. M. Kenyon's fictional account of a teenage girl who turns off her cellphone and enters the very real, but mystical world of Budo warriors. Humorous, irreverent and heart-wrenching, The Lotus Blossom is an unforgettable tale of a Midwestern teenage girl's transformation into a budo warrior in the midst of the turmoil of the Information Age. Available in all digital formats, paperback and soon to be released in hardcover.
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