146 ALIGN WITH WHAT YOU STAND FOR Personal convictions are our own personal standards that we live by, as well as our personal and passionate beliefs that we are willing to take a stand for. We all have standards of behavior that we live by and a personal code of beliefs. Many of them we don’t even think much about, if at all, because many of them we inherit along the way, and they are just the way things have been done or thought of in your life without taking the time to stop and look at them. In this chapter we are going to ask you to take a strong look at your personal standards and code of beliefs to see if they are serving you well. Some may be a perfect reflection of your best self, some may need to be raised a bit, and some lowered a bit. What we want you to take away from this chapter is an awareness of how your personal standards and code of beliefs, when aligned with your very best self, are the gatekeepers of a less problematic and more passionate way of being. PERSONAL STANDARDS Let’s start by looking at personal standards. Your personal standards are the behaviors you hold yourself to in order to remain aligned with your highest self. We can have personal standards about many things ranging from how punctual we are to how we treat others. Our standards should reflect who we truly are, versus who we think we should be, and pull us forward into being our very best. This means we have to be aware if our standards are set too high or too low. Many times, we have never taken the time to identify or articulate standards for many things, so you may need to begin creating standards that you have never had or even thought much about before. To begin working with standards, here are a few things to know to get you started. You can begin identifying and clarifying your standards by beginning your standard statements with “I am a person who .” These statements are most effective if they are put in a positive phrase. For example, Perhaps you have decided to create a standard for yourself around giving to others.
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