The first thing you should do when you start a new MAKE ROOM Journal & Planner is list your goals and values. But why? Why is it so important to be sure that you’ve got your goals and values clear? Because if you don’t have them clear, you don’t know what to act in alignment with.

You need to act in alignment with your goals and values. They provide the compass. The metrics, ideas, and actions that you take (and don’t take) should all be in alignment with your values. If they’re not, they’re in alignment with somebody else’s, or they’re done according to what’s immediately in front of you.

You should sit down and take some time to journal about your values. Who are you trying to become? What’s important to you? Why? Be super familiar with them. Once you’ve decided your values, set some goals around them. Be familiar with your goals and values. Write them down in the front “7 Key Themes” area. Go back to them, review them and revise them. What you write down here will guide everything you do. Act in alignment with what you write down here.

Look, you can bullet the important things that need to be done that day, or that week, or that month. You can break down all the actions that you need to take into smaller, more manageable chunks. But, if you don’t have a clear direction, you’re not acting in alignment with your values and goals. Is your to-do list in alignment with your values and goals?

If you don’t remain focused on your own values and goals, you start to focus on what’s directly in front of you, or what’s easiest to focus on. You give into distraction and obligation. You have to be able to look past what’s directly in front of you. Often, those things are placed there, just to distract or redirect you. Sometimes they’re there because it’s part of the direction that you’re headed in.

Sometimes you need to deal with what’s in front of you. Your values, priorities, and goals provide a compass heading for you. Often, you’ll need to traverse what’s in your path. As you do, check back in with your compass to be sure you’re still headed in the right direction. When you’re going through those patches, remain on your heading, and you’ll know you’re still on your own journey, following your own compass heading.

If you don’t have your values, priorities, and goals set, and if you’re not familiar with them, it can be difficult to make the correct choices when you’re presented with a challenge. You may not know all the information, but if you can make a decision based on your values, you’ll make better choices. If you aren’t familiar with your values and goals, you’ll end up making choices based on others’ priorities, plans, and goals. Rather than your own values and goals directing you, the priorities of others’ will do it. This isn’t what you want or need. You have to travel your own path.

You will have to traverse difficulty. You will also have to travel through a few common themes. You will pass through education and learning. Your path will include passion. It will also include love. It will be difficult at times, maybe even more than you anticipated. If you let these difficult times, addictions, distractions, and obligations cause you to make decision that aren’t in line with your values and goals, you’ll end up being a product of those things, and not your own values and goals. It will be difficult, but it will be rewarding.

Make your choices based on your own values and goals. Be willing to suffer for them. Be willing to experience discomfort for what you believe in. When you do, you’ll find your own reward.

The MAKE ROOM Planner & Journal is designed to help you to live in alignment with your goals and values. Order yours today to find your own compass heading and start taking action on what’s most important to you!