Reader Challenge: Write Your Creed

“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” —Anaïs Nin

Write your creed because you will live out what you believe

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again because I promise you that it’s true: you will live out what you believe (both consciously and subconsciously) about yourself, your chances, your situation, your place in the world, and on the list goes. The best way I’ve found to know what you really believe (or really want to believe) deep down where it matters most is to write your own creed.

What is a creed?

Your creed is a statement or series of statements about what you believe, what you value, and who you are at the core. Writing your creed is a process that will help you better understand yourself and what motivates you. If you’re true to yourself when you write your creed, you’ll come to find that it will:

1. empower you,
2. give you focus, and
3. help shape your choices and actions so you can live a life that’s true and meaningful to you.

How do you write your creed?

1. Answer some (or all if you like) of the Proust Questionnaire. For example, answer these:
   What ideal is most important to me?
   What is my favorite virtue? My chief characteristic? My main fault?
   What if my idea of happiness? Of misery?
   What is my favorite motto?
   Who are my heroes in real life?
2. Pay attention. Seek out quotes/phrases that resonate with you or make up your own.
3. Let yourself explore possibilities. Writing your creed will make you question yourself and who you are now and who you want to be. So write down any and all phrases/quotes that resonate with you. Write down everything you come across that takes your attention and/or makes you stop and take note.
4. Start editing. Go through the list you made in number three above and choose the ones that feel most like you (either who you are now or who you’d like to be). Circle those.
5. Write those circled phrases on a separate sheet. That’s your creed.
6. Put your creed somewhere you will see it. Read it. Let your creed become the beliefs that cycle through your head over and over. Enough repetition and you won’t even have to think about them. You’ll just believe them about yourself.
7. Let your creed guide your decisions and actions. If you do that, you’ll see that your creed will become a roadmap, getting you to who you most want to be and to where you most want to go.