Follow Your Personal Values: Build a Professional Life You Love

Establishing our personal values isn’t just about stating them—it’s about living them out loud!?

What if your work life and your personal life were beautiful, huge mirrors, reflecting back to you what you truly believe in?

Satisfying, right?

Understanding and defining your personal values is a journey of self-discovery and intentional living, and the process is well worth it. Identifying these values allows you to:

• Make informed decisions: Know what’s essential and opt for choices that vibe with your core.
• Reduce internal conflict: Say goodbye to that nagging feeling of being pulled in ten different directions!
• Gain direction and purpose: Wave hello to a clear path and a sense of meaning.

Having clearly defined values means you’re like a cat (ehem) with natural, instinctual balance, navigating life with grace and clarity. You’ll land on your feet every time.

How to Choose Identify Your Values

The first distinction to make here is that your professional and personal values already exist. You just might not be completely aware of them, or how they run the show…or which values aren’t present, their absence instead creating friction or unease in your life.

It’s normal to feel drawn to a dozen or more values because they all appear incredibly important.?

The ultimate aim, though, is to zone in on just two core values that resonate with you.

Step 1: Start with the ten-to-fifteen values that speak to you. Circle ‘em all. (At Permission to Start Over HQ, we love Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead Values List. There’s also a spot to write in your own!)

Step 2 through “However Long It Takes”: Next? Slowly sift through them. Cross out the values that you could live without. Measure up two similar values and intuit which one needs to go and which one stays on the list. Keep going until you have two values left.

But Emily, Why Only Two Core Values?

Brené Brown shares that these are the core values that “help you find your way in the dark,” that “fill you with a sense of purpose.” By narrowing your focus, you gain clear criteria for assessing your next steps, choices, and actions.

These trusty guideposts help you evaluate whether you’re truly aligned with what you wish to stand for!

For example, if 'integrity' is a core value, you will naturally feel drawn to act honestly, even when it’s tough. And when you’re asked to be dishonest, it won’t feel right.?

If 'compassion' defines you, lending a helping hand or empathizing with another’s experience likely feels fulfilling to you.?

Living according to these main values helps you to 'walk your talk' by aligning your actions with your beliefs, ensuring you are consistent and authentic in all areas of life.

Challenge: Make this values exercise a part of your annual check-up! You might notice that your values may shift over time, or that one or two become more important than others as the circumstances of your life change.

Embracing and living your core values is your all-access pass to an authentic and fulfilling life.?

It empowers you to make choices that reflect your essence, crafting a life that’s true, vibrant, and uniquely yours!

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May your values guide your way,

Emily