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Hi Team,

Last week before Christmas!

This will be my last Weekly Email for 2019, so please excuse a bit of reminiscing and some emotive texture in this email.
It has been a big year for me and DDB with a lot of first's and changes. Most significantly staff changes. By my counting there have been 10 changes to the DDB Team this year (5 leaving and 5 starting) which is a lot for our small tight knit team. It has also been a huge year of flying for me. At last count I will have flown 120 000 KM by the end of the year (4 trips back and forth to Europe), one with my brother and 95yr. old father and three to visit Maryanne and Maggie who are currently living in Italy for a year.

One of the highlights of 2019 for me personally has been researching and writing these weekly emails. I have already lined up 15 topics for my 2020 emails, such as, "life's lottery, F.O.M.O, self-sabotage, vulnerability and emotional capacity."  Bet you can't wait? I would also welcome any requests for specific topics you would like me to research and write about, as well as any books you have come across that you think I should read (thanks Joel for your last couple of suggestions, I have already ordered these books to add to my pile)?

To round out this year's emails I would like to dive back into the topic that for me has been the biggest area of discussion and discovery; VALUES...

"Values are the principles that give our lives meaning and allow us to persevere through adversity", 
 Barb Markway.

After discussing this topic at several Team Meetings and in a few weekly emails, I feel that we all have a good understanding of "our core values as a team & business". We are also aware of how these core values shape our behaviour and DDB's culture. However, to fully understand this topic I feel we also need to explore our own "personal values". (I find it difficult to articulate or explain my own personal values). So while researching this topic, I came across a great tool to help discover and understand our own personal values.
https://www.lifevaluesinventory.org/

The "Life Values Inventory" is a free online assessment questionnaire. It takes about 10 mins and is very enjoyable and enlightening. I would strongly recommend that you all take the time to do this simple assessment and see what you learn about yourself. Here is what I have learnt by doing the LVI assessment.

• Personal values are determined by how you view yourself and the world around you.
• Your personal values form a picture of who you are and what you stand for.
• Values are the source of our self-esteem and resilience.
• Values also apply to religion, politics and ethical beliefs (but this is a whole different area that I am not venturing into)!
• Your personal values change throughout your life and are never static or out of date.
• At the end of my LVI assessment, my current "Top 5 Personal Values" (out of 200 possible values) are; 
• "achievement, responsibility, financial prosperity, health + activity and creativity".  Which pretty much sums up who I am!

Another significant discovery that came from this LVI assessment, is that a lot of the stress that we all feel in our daily lives actually comes from our personal values being out of balance or being poorly managed. Equally significant, is the fact that most of our motivation comes from our personal values. Both of these facts are worthy of more in depth research and discussion and I will slate these for a future email.

Have an enjoyable and productive final work week.
See you all at the Break Up Lunch on Thursday.
David