Stand Fors
The other night, my friend and I were creating vision boards. In case you aren't familiar, a vision board is a collage of pictures, words, sayings, etc. that people usually create at the beginning of a new year. It's a visual way of reminding yourself what you want for the upcoming year and helping to bring it to fruition.
Anyway, I was cutting words and sayings out of magazines for my board and came across an article that was titled "What are Your Stand Fors?".
What are Your Stand Fors.
This title drew my attention right away and I knew that it needed to go on my board. In fact, it became a center focus on my board- even though I didn't know exactly why, or what it meant to me just yet.
Ever since then, I've been thinking about that phrase- What are Your Stand Fors?". People will often say things like "What do you believe in?" or "What do you stand up for?" but never "What are your stand fors?"
I think about this phrase as a way of saying- what are you passionate about? What are you willing to stand up on a pedestal and tell people about? What is important to you??
The more I thought about it, the more I started to brainstorm my own "stand fors". I want to share some of them with you today:
I stand for integrity. I've always loved the definition of integrity that says: Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Isn't that a great definition? Being true to yourself and your values enough that even if you aren't going to "get in trouble", you still do the right thing.
I stand for honesty. Similar to integrity, being honest with people, in relationships with everyone from co-workers, to clients, to friends and family is something I stand for.
I stand for passion. I believe that if you are following your passion, life is just better. True passion. The type of passion that lights you up and energizes you. The type of passion where you want to keep doing it just because it feels so great- not because it brings you money, or just some sense of momentary security.
I stand for movement. As you may know-if you follow my blog, I now understand the importance of movement for children's growth and development. I understand and know how movement can change the brain and help the brain and body work better together. I've seen it with my own two eyes and felt it for myself.
I stand for connection. In the work that I do, I love having the one-on-one connection with kids and building that relationship. I never felt like I was able to do that as well when I was teaching. I know some teachers are very successful at that. I struggled to build those true connections with kids when in the classroom.
I stand for trust. Trust is a necessary part of any relationship. I need the parents of my clients to trust me. After all, they are my partners. I need my family and friends to trust me and for me to be able to trust them. Without trust, connection breaks down and it can be hard to build it back up again. Trust is an important stand for for sure.
I stand for communication. Ongoing communication- with family, with friends and with clients. Communication of course, also ties in with honesty and trust because if the communication isn't honest, or if you can't trust the communication you are receiving, then it isn't very useful, correct?
I have other stand fors that I haven't shared. And maybe you thought of some of your own as you were reading this. And if you didn't? Well, maybe it's something to think about as you go about your day.
What are your "stand fors"?
If you did think of some of your own, let me know in the comments if you'd like. I'd love to hear them.