Personal Growth From the Bottom Up – BroderickDurisseau.com
A Blog Dedicated to Personal Growth, Success and Goal Achievement

About 7 months ago while I was digging through Steve Pavlina’s archives I found this useful web-based tool for prioritizing values. It’s completely free and it will probably tell you quite a bit about yourself you might not have been aware of if you haven’t prioritized your values before. If you want, you can also prioritize your values by hand. The tool is based on this extensive list of values Steve put together and you can also add your own.

The main purpose is to help you become more clear about who you are and also give you direction for where you want to go. It boosts focus because what you value, you will spend time, energy, attention, and money on and it will expand because of that. So if you want to be more healthy place it higher on your values priority list. That way you become clear about the direction you need to take to make that goal a reality. You might begin spending more time reading health books from healthy people and taking the time to try different things.

Doing this exercise multiple times with at least a month in between each time will allow you to see which values stay at the top of your priority list and which move away. For instance, the first time I did this exercise was when I was reading The Power of Now so I put spirituality at the top. But when I started working on building my power and did the exercise again, focus and completion moved up and spirituality disappeared. Some never moved, but only became stronger (I’ll explain that later). I must say it’s important that you be as honest with yourself as possible.

Here’s my results after completing the exercise four times.

First time February 22, 2009

1. Spirituality
2. Honesty
3. Freedom
4. Knowledge
5. Health
6. Flow
7. Impact
8. Growth
9. Creativity
10. Persistence
11. Vision
12. Clarity

2nd Time May 20, 2009

1. Freedom
2. Giving
3. Peace
4. Wisdom
5. Vision
6. Persistence
7. Growth
8. Health
9. Flow
10. Creativity
11. Focus

This is when I really understood how sowing and reaping works which is why giving was so high. I watched this video on building web communities and it just clicked, so I really was focused on contribution.

3rd Time July 28, 2009

1. Freedom
2. Growth
3. Wisdom
4. Truth
5. Power
6. Vision
7. Persistence
8. Focus
9. Contribution
10. Giving
11. Health
12. Completion
13. Flow

4th time August 20, 2009

1. Freedom
2. Growth
3. Intelligence
4. Power
5. Health
6. Contribution
7. Vision
8. Focus
9. Persistence
10. Flow
11. Creativity
12. Love

Self Analysis

What can I take from this? Well I notice that some are more than values. I can value flow but that doesn’t bring up as much emotion in me as freedom or wisdom/intelligence does. I will probably prioritize freedom at the top each time. I’m pretty sure intelligence and growth will always be at the top as well. Next time I might not even include those because they’re just givens.

I also noticed that August 20, 2009 was the first time I could honestly put love on the list. I thought that was pretty interesting. Other than love and contribution all the other ones are “me” related. I want to be more intelligent. I want to be healthier. I want to have power to pursue my goals. I suppose when you dedicate your life to serving, giving, and contribution then love is a natural consequence and I imagine it will get stronger as time goes by. It resonates more with me to describe contribution as striving for a win-win for me and anyone who reads this blog. What does it mean if I’m happier, healthier, wealthier if those who I serve are not.

You try

This is all just what I’ve learned from doing it for a while. I would say the best benefit of doing this exercise is learning more about myself and as you learn more about who you are on the inside you start understanding why your outside is the way it is.

Try it out. Feel free to share your results. I’d be interested to see how other people prioritize their values. It would tell me a lot about you in a very short amount of time if you were living or striving to live those values.

My full name is Broderick Allen Durisseau where Allen is my middle name.

Broderickallen.com was a product of vision. I asked myself “What name would I want to be known as long term?” My last name Durisseau has been a source of frustration. Having to spell it out, having people misspell it, mispronounce it, forget it etc., so why not just cut off the last name and stick with Broderick Allen? Allen was easier to spell and remember and to me at the time it just seemed to roll off the tongue better. It’s still part of my full name anyway. Why not change it to exactly what I want?

From that point on I had every intention of legally changing my name to Broderick Allen. I wrote it on my vision board and registered through social media and Twitter as Broderick Allen. I started broderickallen.com and even the posts on my first blog You Got Dunked On are as Broderick Allen.

Coming to accept my name

As time has went by, I’ve started to realize that there are many people I’ve seen with the last name Allen already out there. Debbie Allen, Tim Allen, Robert Allen, Marc Allen, Woody Allen and countless more that I don’t know. Durisseau is a unique name and I’ve become more accepting of it.

I’ve also come to realize how little my name matters in the grand scheme of things. If my blog creates value like I want it to, people won’t stop coming because my name is difficult to spell. I used to visit heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com. The length of that domain name didn’t stop me from going there. If it’s really a purple cow, people will find it.

I’ve registered broderickdurisseau.com and right now I’m in the process of moving this blog to that domain.

Accomplishing a goal doesn’t happen or even progress without power. It’s weird looking back when I did this review of Personal Development for Smart People I thought that I was pretty well aligned with the power principle. Boy was I wrong.

I want to build my power. On a day to day basis I succumb to distractions and procrastinate on small tasks. When I look back on the day, I see that nothing gets done. I can start something, but I don’t finish as much as I would like to. When I look back on my life, I see a trail of uncompleted goals. Leaving a task uncompleted has become a habit in itself, so I want to break that habit and replace it with the habit of completion.

The Power of Completion

It’s funny how when I made a decision to build my power I unconsciously started reading more powerful articles and buying books with power in the title. The Power of Less, Unlimited Power, Time Power, The Power of Now, The Power of Partnerships. If you’ve ever completed something that has tested you or pushed your limits, then you understand that there’s power in completion. To know that you have the power to finish what you start makes it a lot easier to start in the first place. You don’t have this voice in the back saying “Is this just one of your stops before you jump onto the next big project that you also won’t finish?”

Finding this focus was pretty huge for me. Since I know that my focus is very important in growth, I’ve gone back and forth on where to put that focus. Do I focus on money and finances? Health? Education and knowledge? Putting a focus on any of those mean nothing if there’s no power to complete the day to day tasks to get to those desired goals.

I started writing this article at 10:00am and I’m done at 12:00am. I went straight through with no distractions, and I’m feeling pretty powerful now. I feel this is a start in building the habit of completion.

What does being overwhelmed mean? That simply means you are trying to take on too much and that can lead to depression, escape, or just a stop in the progress towards your goals. This is the information age. An age where emails, requests, and endless information are often thrown at us non-stop. It’s easy to be overwhelmed if we don’t consciously make decisions as to what we will do and what we will not do. When I look back at any time I was depressed, it was always partially due to trying to overwhelm myself and it all happened unconsciously.

“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” – James Allen

The biggest key to being unoverwhelmed is a single focus and simplicity. When you feel overwhelmed, simplify whatever you want to do and focus your energy and attention on one goal and doing the least possible. Understand this does take into account that you have a goal to begin with. Take some of the stuff off your back so you have a load you can successfully carry.

A Personal Example

I remember when I first tested out the Law of Attraction I wanted to see if I could manifest a clean apartment. I had an apartment with food, paper, and trash all over the place. Just the sight of the place was overwhelming. To think about all the stuff I had to clean and pick up and throw away and how it would just get dirty all over again anyway after I did all that work. So I started envisioning a clean apartment. Eventually I realized that if I pick up one shirt and find an adequate place for it, I will be one step closer to my vision. I stopped thinking about all the work I had to do and started completely focusing on vision and action happened naturally. I didn’t have to force it. Eventually momentum kicked in and within a week I had that room completely cleaned then after some months the whole apartment. But I started with that one shirt and continued to feel as if I had already manifested a clean apartment. I simplified it down to the least I could do first.

The Power of Less

This whole idea that less is more really became evident to me after reading The Power of Less. The whole book is focused around productivity through simplicity, less, small victories, building simple habits, and presence with what you do. After I read that book I knew that less had helped me completely clean a house that previously was just a source for feeling overwhelmed. It helped me see that there is so much power in less.

While trying to simplify your life down to the essential you might run into some resistance in the form of other people or even your fear or guilt itself. Dealing with that resistance and overcoming your fear or guilt is a totally different monster that I’ll probably address in a different article, but for now just know that what you do is a choice and you don’t have to do anything.

You don’t deserve to be overwhelmed. It’s often a source of stress and stress is a power drainer. BUT being overwhelmed is an unconscious choice that you’ve made. You have overwhelmed yourself by making decisions to take on too much. Simplicity and ease is also a choice you can make.