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Explore Value-Based Living on the Company Growth Podcast

January 26, 2021 | 6 minute read

The past year has been incredibly draining and stressful for everyone, and growing professionally during a pandemic can seem difficult. You may have felt that your life was getting unmanageably stressful even before the pandemic. If that’s the case, it’s time to check out the concept of value-based living.

We wanted to have our next guest, Allison Villa, on the podcast because we wanted to talk about why your people, your employees are your best asset to your company’s growth, and why listening to their self-care problems is a key to success. Self care for you and your employees is important to growth at any time, but during a worldwide crisis it’s essential to take a step back and see how you can reaffirm your values. You owe it to yourself to check in on how you and your employees are doing.

The Definition of Values and Value-Based Living

Allison Villa, entrepreneur, psychoanalyst, and guest on Episode 12 of the Company Growth Podcast defines values in this way: “values give direction on how you act, what you strive for, and what you deem as important.”

We talk about values as though they’re written on our shirts and we see them every day, but on closer reflection you might not actually be able to easily list what your values are. For example, you might have a subconscious sense of your values - you can say what you do and don’t admire - but still might struggle to put values into words.

Value-based living is the idea that you bring your values to the forefront of your life and put priority on living your values.

Practice Putting Your Most Important Values Into Words

Make a list of your values. Physically writing down your inner thoughts can prompt surprising revelations.
Once you have your list, compare the actual time you spend during the day with what you’ve written down. You may have put something like “spending time with family” on your values list, but how much time do you actually commit to that value? If you notice inconsistencies, it’s worth shifting your time so your life begins to truly reflect your values.

Value-Based Living and Compatibility with Professional Life

You may think that some of your values, while important to you, will never be able to compete with the time demands of your professional life. But there is a way to balance both. Even resting for a few minutes after every 45 minutes of work can help rest your brain and improve cognition.

Allison recommends that you, in between meetings with clients, take a few minutes to stretch, do squats, exercise in some way. Short exercises are a quick and easy way of devoting a few extra minutes in your day to self care.

Let’s recap on a few quick steps toward a more value-based lifestyle:

Make a list of your values. List roughly how much time you spend on each. Be honest about how much time you actually spend on what you most care about.
Take a few minutes to rest after working for 45 minutes. You need time to recharge, and that recharge time will actually help you work more effectively than if you work the whole time.
Do some physical exercises when you have a quick free moment, even a few minutes of extra exercise a day can make you feel better and help keep you active.

For more value-based living tips like these, check out episode 12 of the Company Growth Podcast.

When we find time to help ourselves we can find time to help others, and when everyone’s self care values are met, everyone can work stronger towards a common goal, like building your company into the stronger version you’ve always known was possible.