You Will Be Lost Until You Determine These Basic Things

Most people do the basic things in life on autopilot: eat, sleep, shower, work, etc. But your personal basics are ingrained in you even deeper than that, and have an incredibly profound impact on your health and the quality of your life.

These are the things that help you function at your highest and best, or keep you suffering and floundering like a fish out of water.

When your personal basics are steeped in meaning and value, they keep you grounded, sane and healthy.

Essentially, they are your holy grail, whether you realize it or not.

A perfect stranger can look at your personal basics and tell if you’re headed for greatness or going the opposite direction.

So What are Personal Basics?

Personal Basics are like a conglomerate of your beliefs, habits, and values. They determine the choices you make and the thoughts that live in your head, and they are visible in all aspects of your life, whether in the positive or negative.

Everyone’s personal basics are different.

They are as unique to you as your fingerprints. We each learn, grow, and thrive in different ways.

As the years go by, your personal basics evolve, transform, and become more refined. And unless a drastic change occurs at some point, they will usually stay within the same general realm.

Any number of things can fall into either of these categories.

A healthy lifestyle can mean exercise, eating right, or watching less TV. Creative pursuits could be art, writing, or gardening. Strong personal relationships can be taking family vacations or playing poker with your friends.

Once you determine what your personal basics are, you will see the pattern of how crucial a role these elements play in your life.

Your personal basics can also be things that are detrimental to your livelihood.

For instance, when I was really struggling in the past, I spent a lot of time with wine, late-night eating, and TV. I liked lying around a lot. I put a ton of value in downtime.

Maybe I believed I didn’t deserve any better, or maybe I just didn’t want to get up and do the work.

These were my personal basics at that stage in life- a crossroads between my beliefs, habits, and what I deemed valuable.

When your beliefs, values and habits are harnessed in meaning and purpose, you will be nurturing your intrinsic needs in some way and you’ll be more in alignment with what’s most important to you.

On the contrary, if your personal basics are askew, you’ll feel unwell and that something is off in at least one or more aspects of your life.

We start to see a decline in our health and happiness when we lose touch with the things that we value the most.

A disconnection from our true selves can lead to a stagnant feeling, and we’ll drift further down into that hazy, distant place.

Take the time to shift some things around if you need to. Hone in on what you want your life to look like, and make those things a priority in your life.

Start with 10 minutes a day or one hour a week if you need to.

Is being a good parent important to you? Schedule an hour or two a week to spend dedicated time with your children one-on-one.

Want to create a new healthy habit around your bedtime routine so you can sleep better?

Make a deal with yourself to try one simple new strategy every day for a week.

“If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying attention to the little things”-Emily Dickinson

Get Back to YOUR Basics

It is your foundational values that make you function at your absolute highest (when you make them a priority).

To be the best version of yourself, you have to look at the big picture by focusing on the small things- beliefs, habits, and values.

I can look back at the decades of my life and tell that when I was really thriving and doing exceptionally well — either in health or professionally or overall—my personal basics were fine-tuned.

When I look back at the darkest of my days, it is very clear that I was completely derailed from my core values and the things that were most meaningful to me.

What are your personal basics?

Are you living in a way that is in alignment with the beliefs, habits, and values that you want to have?