E3 Overdoing His Way to a Values Driven Life | Jonathan Reitz

Jonathan Reitz grew up hearing the message that he’s worthless and not likely to amount to much, even when he somehow knew he was capable. The message and the disconnect of it led to depression, which, when combined with his addictive personality, led to years of alcoholism. Through acceptance of himself and deep inner work, he overcame his depression, and he used his addictive personality to drive a career through radio and television to become a leader in the coaching community.

More recently, he was diagnosed with ADHD and learned to embrace his divergent thinking that prevents him from staying focused on something for very long, but gives him the ability to solve big challenges creatively.

Through therapy, input from people around him, and self-reflection, he lives a life driven by his values: generosity, investment, catalyzing, hope, and uniqueness.

Learn more about Jonathan Reitz’ work:

LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/jonathanreitz/

Website:  jonathanreitz.com

FLUXIFY:  fluxify.net

Weatherhead School of Management:  weatherhead.case.edu/executive-education/subjects/weatherhead-coach-education

To learn more about your host, Stan Ajemian:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanajemian

Website: beingthechangecoaching.com

Below is a list of values, beliefs, or personal characteristics for your consideration. Each of the steps in this process will help you identify which are most important to you and which are guiding principles in your life. It is difficult to choose, of course, because many of these values and characteristics will be at least somewhat important to you. It is also hard to choose because you might find yourself thinking, “I should value X and put it first on my list,” even though it really isn’t. So, force yourself to choose, and choose based on your true feelings, not the “shoulds” in life.

You might find it useful to determine degrees of importance by imagining how you would feel if you were forced to give up believing in or acting on a particular value, belief, or personal characteristic. Or, think about how you would feel if your life really revolved around certain values, beliefs, or characteristics. How would this make you feel? Sometimes, you might find it helpful to consider two values at a time, asking yourself if about the relative importance for one over the other.

1. Start by circling the fifteen or so values that are most important to you.
2. Then, from this list, identify the ten that are most important to you and write them in a list.
3. From this list of ten, circle the five that are the most important to you.

List of Values, Beliefs, or Desirable Personal Characteristics:

Accomplishment

Achievement

Adventure

Affection

Affectionate

Affiliation

Ambitious

Assisting others

Authority

Autonomy

Beauty

Belonging

Broad-minded

Caring

Challenge

Cheerful

Clean

Comfortable life

Companionship

Compassion

Competent

Competitiveness

Contribution to others

Conformity

Contentedness

Control

Cooperation

Courageous

Courteous

Creativity

Dependable

Disciplined

Economic

Security

Effective

Equality

Excitement

Fame

Family happiness

Family security

Forgiving

Free choice

Freedom

Friendship

Fun

Genuineness

Happiness

Health

Helpfulness

Honesty

Hope

Independence

Improving Society

Innovative

Integrity

Intellectual

Involvement

Imagination

Joy

Leisurely

Logical

Love

Loving

Mature Love

National Security

Nature

Obedient

Order

Peace

Personal Development

Pleasure

Polite

Power

Pride

Rational

Recognition

Reliable

Religion

Respectful

Responsible

Restrained

Salvation

Self-controlled

Self-reliance

Self-respect

Sincerity

Spirituality

Stability

Status

Success

Symbolic

Taking Risks

Teamwork

Tidy

Tender

Tranquility

Wealth

Winning

Wisdom

Others:

10 Most Important Values:

Finally, rank each of your five most important values, beliefs, or characteristics, with “1” being the most important value to you, to “5” being the least important of these five important values.

McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Johnston, F. (2008) Becoming a resonant leader. Harvard Business Press