“Look to your aspirational role models.”

A thought by John Townsend from his book, Leading From Your Gut (p. 38). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Having an aspiring set of values is so important to leading from your gut.

Old gold mine

John says, “All of us have role models, mentors, and coaches who have inspired us to be more than we are. Mine the values of the people you trust, admire and have been helped by. If they are alive, simply ask them: What are the foundational values you live by? If they are no longer living, review your history with them and determine the values you saw. If they are unknown to you personally, such as authors or great leaders in history, look to their writings or biographies to identify the values they embody. Add their values to your list.”

He goes on, “For many years, I have had a board of advisors, several people who help me stay on track with my life, mission, career, and business areas. These are people who know me well and give me guidance and accountability. They are also very successful and accomplished individuals in their own rights, so they have an experience base to speak from. I have picked up many aspirational values from my time with them, such as living with a vision, wisdom, authenticity, honesty, structure, and strategy. These helped form my thinking for my final internal values list.”

He then shares, “Take advantage of the massive amounts of information available on the Internet. I have done many searches on values and have discovered several that I might otherwise have overlooked. One was the value of creativity, for example. It didn’t make the final cut, but it’s on my longer list!”

And these are such good places to go in finding ideas for our list of core values to live by, aren’t they? 

Yes, yes?