RECOGNITION AND DEDICATION CAPABILITY
Mental health professionals use therapeutic models to help understand clients, design strategies, and attain goals. I've incorporated the best parts of acceptance and commitment, cognitive behavioral, person-centered, and narrative models to create my own therapeutic model: recognition and dedication competency (RDC). The simplest way I explain RDC is by using the fork in the road analogy.
As you travel down the road of life, you encounter a fork. You can bear left on the road that has an arrow pointing toward WANT, or you can bear right on the road that has an arrow pointing toward BEST. It's unwise to bear left because many things we want are bad for us. It's wise to bear right because doing what is best is always, well, best. An example of someone encountering this fork is a spurned lover who wants to go the bar, drown his bruised affections, and maybe send a few nasty texts to the woman who rejected him. What is best is that he do none of that, though he wants to.
Soon you encounter another fork. Here you can bear left on the road that has an arrow pointing toward HAPPINESS, or you can bear right on the road that has an arrow pointing toward VALUES. It's unwise to bear left because happiness is vague, difficult to attain, impossible to sustain, and followed by disappointment. It's wise to bear right because a life rich in personal values is a fulfilling life. To determine your personal values, complete these three Recognition steps.
Recognition Step 1 Below are fifty personal values. When you see one that's "very important" to you, write it down. Whatever you think the word means, that's what it means.
Adventure - Authenticity - Balance - Beauty - Challenge - Communication - Community - Compassion - Connection - Courage - Creativity - Fairness - Family - Freedom - Friendship - Fun - Generosity - Gratitude Health - Hindsight - Home - Honesty - Hope - Humor - Independence - Joy - Justice - Leadership - Learning - Love - Nature - Optimism - Order - Passion - Patience - Power - Privacy - Respect - Responsibility - Risk - Romance - Safety - Security - Sex - Spirituality - Teamwork - Trust - Wealth - Winning - Wisdom
Recognition Step 2 Among the personal values you have written down, mindfully go through each of them again, keeping only the ones that are truly "very important" to you.
Recognition Step 3 Among your remaining personal values, choose the ten "most important" ones. These are your ten most important personal values.
Repeat these three Recognition exercises at the beginning of each year. Now that you've recognized your personal values, complete these three Dedication steps.
Dedication Step 1 With your ten most important values listed vertically, read each one aloud and tell yourself aloud why it is one of your most important personal values.
Dedication Step 2 Next to each value, record a 0 to 10 in response to the question, "How much of this value is present in my environment?" 0 is none. 10 is a ton. Your environment is holistically comprised of these ten components: homelife, worklife, leisure, romantic partners, friends, acquaintances, physical spaces, possessions, mental health status, physical health status.
Dedication Step 3 Any score of 5 or below requires action. Let's say Humor is one of your most important personal values but it got a 3. Determine why it's that score, design strategies to raise it, and take action. Watch a funny movie, read a funny book, spend more time with clever friends, attend standup, learn standup. Any score of 6 or above requires maintenance. Let's say Nature is one of your most important personal values and it got an 8. Determine why it's that score, design strategies to maintain it, and take action. Engage with nature with the same frequency and intensity. Or do more to raise that score.
Repeat these three Dedication exercises at the beginning of each month. Now that you've recognized your personal values and have dedicated yourself to them, complete these three Competency steps.
Competency Step 1 Realize and confirm that you are competent. Do this however you see fit. This may include verbalizing, journaling, leaving yourself written reminders, and accepting kind verbal affirmations.
Competency Step 2 Since you've already realized and confirmed you're capable, take action. You see, for every hour, day, and week you don't take action, options narrow until the cold circumstances of life end up deciding things for you. Never reach that stage. Pointless to walk when it's past time to run.
Repeat these two Competency exercises at the beginning of each day.
Competency Step 3 Do these ten things.
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