What Are Your Core Values?
You feel unbalanced and unsettled. You know you’re on-edge and easily frustrated. Maybe you feel like you want to do something, but you just don’t know what.
You feel...lost.
What are you supposed to do when this happens?
First, know that these times happen to everyone. It’s a natural part of being human; things can’t (and shouldn’t) always be okay. Be gentle with yourself and simply be aware of what you’re feeling and experiencing.
Next, remember what your core values are.
Hold Up - My Values?
If you just read that last paragraph and thought to yourself, “My core values? I’ve never actually defined them…”, you’re like most of my coaching clients. Sure, most people can rhyme off some personality traits or characteristics that they value in a partner or friend, but can they list off their Personal Values?
Personal values are the things that are important to us as individuals. They are the characteristics and behaviours that motivate us and guide our decisions.
Why Are Personal Values Important?
To put it bluntly, when you know your core values, the more satisfying and fulfilling your life will be.
Why? Because you naturally start living a life that aligns to those values. You have more energy and drive to focus on doing the things that are important to YOU. You begin living a life of integrity and one in which you’re more confident in your decisions. Your life is no longer defined by your relationship status, social media following or job title because there is an entirely new dimension to it: knowing what truly makes you, you.
Identifying Your Core Values
Discovering and defining your personal core values is a great exercise and isn’t too hard to do.
I suggest starting with this list of 230 Personal Core Values from The Happiness Planner. Look through the list and highlight the ones that really resonate with you, and cross out the ones that don’t.
Now, if you’re like me, you’ll probably be left with a list of over 40 words (I mean, forty words isn’t even 20% of that super-detailed list!).
So, from there, do that first exercise again, this time trying to cut the list in half.
Take your time with this round of elimination, and repeat if you need to get it down to ten.
Next, rate each of the words you highlighted on the following scale: 1 - Important // 2 - Very Important // 3 - Extremely Important
Group each word according to their score. Take a look at how the groups ended up.
These ten words are your personal core values. The ones you rated a “3” are your non-negotiables.
Congrats! You now know your personal core values.
Living Your Values
Now that you know your values, how do you use them to make a difference in your life? We’ll be following up this post with a Part Two: Living Your Values. Sign-up for The Everyday Dream Newsletter and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s published!
Are you ready to start living your values and Your Everyday Dream? Check out the Design Your Dream Blueprint now!
