Values - are you living yours?

I've been feeling fairly unbalanced lately.. this always takes me to a quiet place (ha that ONLY exists in my mind) to reflect on WHAT'S UP!

I came across THIS post about values and while I generally feel I know what my values are and usually read these things and think about it, but never put pen to paper I decided to get to work w/ my notepad and the list and see where it lead me. Wow! It slapped me square in the face!

The post links you to a list you can print and go over for both your personal life and you work life.. since mine are pretty much one in the same I just did one list. I dutifully went through and circled all the 'values' that I thought pertained to me and then easily (maybe too easily) narrowed them down to my top 5. No problemo. Normally I would get bored and stop here... distracted by oh so many things, but I perservered and MADE myself continue.

Next you write your top 5 on a paper w/ enough room under each to write (on the left side) where you are aligned w/ this value and (on the right side) where you aren't aligned with this value.

My values are: (not necessarily in order)
1. Family
2. Health/Wellness
3. Fitness
4. Community/Connectedness
5. Simplicity (yea, this ones kinda new.. though it's been in the background for a while)

So I wrote Simplicity down and came up with a decent little list of 'aligned', 'not aligned' and moved on to Family.... CRICKETS! I stared blankly at the 'aligned' column and wanted to cry. It's not like I needed to write it down to KNOW that some work needs to be done here, but just looking it in the face was like being slapped! Of course there are areas where we are 'aligned' .. we eat dinner together every night, I'm a stay at home mom so I spend nearly every waking moment with my children (the quality of those moments could easily be brought into question), I color with them.. or they, uh, color and I'm on the, uh, computer.... anyway you get the idea. There aren't a lot of times where the little ones get my full and undivided attention, Tom and I don't do date nights, I'm terrible with traditions (perhaps you saw my tweets about the easter bunny NOT hiding eggs at our house.. BAD BAD bunny!). On the other hand you better be sure the 'aligned' category under Fitness was FULL! Ugh.

So what does this mean!? I'm not 100% sure just yet. The next part of the process is to take your 'not aligned' items and find ways (both large and small) to address them. I'm working on that ... uh, right after I'm done with this.. oh, and after I pick the kids up from school.. oh, and after I get groceries... I PROMISE it's working through in my brain, but I WILL put it on paper.. because clearly that's a necessary part of the discovery process for me!

This may (or may not) affect my plans for triathlon this year... time will tell. Right now I'm focusing on Knoxville Rev3 as I work though this. Stay tuned. It's always exciting (or not) up in here!

What are your values? Have you given it much thought? Is your life aligned with them? If not, what are you going to do about it!?