My 31 Practices by Alan Williams & Steve Payne
My Rating of “My 31 Practices” by Alan Williams and Steve Payne: 10 / 10
One of my greatest learnings was in aligning my values to my personal and work life. If there is mis-alignment with your values then you typically would go through life not enjoying what you do as well as easily getting frustrated because things don’t go ever seem to go your way. Plus you could be missing out on maximising what life and the world has to offer.
My 31 Practices is at the heart of re-aligning of values to the way you live your life. Essentially you identify what your core values are, develop practices on these values and then begin the re-alignment process. Alan Williams, a values expert and Steve Payne, a Master NLP practicer, take the reader on the journey of discovering, re-aligning and then most importantly practicing those values on a daily basis. It is a nicely structured approach to establishing this practice. If you do not know your values to begin with (e.g. one practice to focus on every day of the month) you have a good place to start by reading this book.
Aspects such as NLP are also included in the book. NLP greatly helps with the alignment process by allowing the reader to understand why they do the things they do given their map of the world, filters, perspectives etc. For those in a mid-life crisis, unhappy, not satisfied etc. should look at this book as a starting point to get back on track with their lives. As J K Rowling wrote in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets… “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
Three key takeaways from the book:
- There is a big difference between “doing” versus “being” when it comes to identifying and living your values. Be one with your values as it helps align to your moral compass and minimise value conflict.
- When behaviour is aligned with your values you are happy, when they are not you feel stressed. Pretty simple.
- Affirmations are a way to train the mind; and training happens when you practice, practice, practice! Training requires conscious effort, discipline, belief, and consistency. That is exactly how you need to practice your affirmations.”
