How would You define Your Personal Culture?
Paul White's nationally distributed syndicated column, “How would You define Your Personal Culture?” is published in 22 publications across seven states. This includes the following newspapers and digital publications: Midland Daily News (MI), SFGate (CA), Seattle PI (WA), Connecticut Post (CT), Laredo Morning Times (TX), Huron Daily Tribune (MI), The Telegraph (IL), and more. In this week's article, Paul discovers the definition of personal culture — from your beliefs and character to your decisions and actions — and the impact it’s having on your life, and the lives of the people you interact with each day.
Does the personal culture you’ve developed attract or repel? Whether you admit it or not, it actually does both. Which leads to some follow-up questions. How would you group the individuals that are attracted, and the ones who are repelled, to your personal culture? And an even deeper question is what would a list of the character traits of the people attracted, and the people repelled, look like? It’s really those two lists that provide the true definition of your personal culture. Let me explain the thought process I utilized to come to that conclusive statement I just presented to you.
While it may seem obvious that your personal culture is defined by the beliefs you’ve developed over your lifetime, it’s actually defined by the way you live those beliefs each day. Those beliefs are defined by your character and your true character is lived out by your actions each day. Those actions are defined by the things you say, the things you do, the things you post on social media, your choice of words, and the way you think and process the information that you acquire each day which lead to your decisions. LOTS of decisions. Each of us averages 35,000 decisions EVERY SINGLE DAY. Those decisions result in immediate actions that, like I said earlier, define our true character.
So, is it important for you to define your personal culture? Are you joking? After what I just shared? I’ve provided proof that it’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do. Your personal culture directly impacts your marriage, your children, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, your community, and literally every person you interact with whether in-person, by phone, while driving, by texting, through social media, and more. In the end, your personal culture determines which emotions you experience each day that can range from joy, happiness, and gratitude to sadness, depression, and regret. Yes…it’s really important that you know, and can define, your personal culture and the impact it’s having on every area of your life. So, let’s get busy defining it.
Lists can make defining your personal culture easy and keep it organized. First, list people that you believe like you. Why do they like you? What do they like most about you? Does your list reflect a balanced cross-section of family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and community members? How do you feel when you’re in their presence? Are you beginning to notice commonalities in this group like appreciation, respect, encouragement, support, compassion, listening when you need them to listen, and love? All of the people on this list are attracted to you because of your personal culture. You can define your personal culture by the reasons these people are attracted to you. You can utilize this same process to list the people that appear to be repelled by you. Then, it’s time for analysis.
Is your personal culture attracting people that lift you up and repelling people that bring you down? Most of us are a combination of the two. The goal in achieving the life we want to live is to be able to define the impact our personal culture has on the percentages. The quickest way to failure in life is to try to be everything to everyone. A sure path to success in life is to focus on living a personal culture each day that leads to the highest percentage of having close relationships with people that lift us up. Note: that doesn’t mean surrounding ourselves with people that accept us for who we are. The goal is to be close to people who are honest with us, that care about us, and are willing to hold us accountable to the best personal culture that we’re capable of. That leads to us living a personal culture each day that attracts people that inspire us to be our best in all that we do.
Since work represents a significant portion of a person’s life, I want to share some thoughts regarding company culture and the impact our personal culture has on it. When I work with companies on culture development, my first task is to identify the leaders and influencers that are driving the culture of the company. My second task is to figure out the personal culture of each of those individuals. The third task is to determine how each of them delivers their personal culture to their teammates, or co-workers depending on hierarchy. It’s very similar to a coach of an athletic team, or a general in charge of our armed forces, who attempt to get the very best performance their team is capable of…and then some. Advancing a company’s culture should be fun, exciting, worthwhile, and measurable. The same applies to the individuals that work there. It’s well worth your time to assess the impact your personal culture has on the culture of the company that employs you. It matters. Not just to you and the company. It matters to ALL of us reflected in the service or product that your company delivers.
It's really important. Please take the time to define your personal culture and the impact it’s having on your life and the lives of the people you interact with each day. There isn’t any downside to doing this. Only upside. And YOU ARE WORTH all of the upside. GiddyUp!
Paul White is a guest columnist and author. Purchase his life-changing book “The Answer Discovery – How to Change the World by Helping Others…and Ourselves” at http://bit.ly/PaulWhiteAmazon. If you’re interested in getting in touch with Paul, please submit an inquiry via our Contact Page.