Our core values
Core values operate as the driving force in our life.
?????? What are our core values?
?? Our values are the things that we believe are important in relation to how we live our lives. Our values should determine our priorities in life, and they are generally the measures we use to determine if life is heading in the direction we want. They are like a compass that points us to our “true north”.
?? Whether we recognise them or not – values exist! We can make life much easier for ourselves by acknowledging our values and by making plans and decisions that honour them.
"It's not hard to make wise decisions when you know what your values are." – ROY DISNEY
? Why personal core values are so important? Because they highlight what we stand for. They are our unique, individual essence. Values guide our decisions. Values in life are constant. Values guide our behaviour and choices in life. Understanding your own core values helps you become a quicker, more focused and effective decision-maker. Without a solid understanding of what our core values are, we will find ourselves feeling lost, disorganised and ungrounded in every aspect of our lives.
?? Values plays an important role in one’s mental well-being, because we feel authentic and principled, we remain congruent, consistent and balanced in our own eyes and the eyes of the people around you. No one trusts anyone who manifest themselves as being inconsistent with their based values.
?? We experience in life moments when we feel happy, fulfilled, proud of ourselves or moments when we feel incredibly regretful, frustrated, unfulfilled, empty, annoyed. Between all the variables which influence our journey, a solid contribution is based on living out or not our core values.
?? Despite whether we're consciously informed of our values or not, they guide every decision we make. Life becomes far more fruitful and stress-free when we accept our values and abide by them - regardless of undesired life circumstances we might encounter along the way.
If you value family, but your job requires you to work 60 hours per week, will this cause you conflict or stress? Or perhaps you work in a competitive sales environment, but you do not value competition, are you likely to have a high job satisfaction? ??
In situations like these the deep understanding of our own values can really help.
Should I leave my job?
Should I compromise my standards?
Should I accept this job promotion?
Should I start my own business?
Should I follow tradition, or take a new path in life?
Taking time to understand the real priorities in our lives will enable us to determine the best direction to take and help us towards achieving our life goals.
?? When you take into consideration your values in decision making, you can be certain to keep a sense of integrity and what you know is right, while being able to approach decisions with confidence and clarity. You feel self-confident, content, satisfied and fulfilled when decisions you make match your values and priorities. The opposite state when this matching is missing is a feeling like something is “wrong”, you feel dissatisfaction, frustration and sometimes even resentment, grief or suffering. SO! To avoid this, we must take a real effort to identify what our values actually are.
?? How we define our personal values? The best way to start doing this is to reflect on your life and identify times when you felt really positive, confident and proud that you were making good choices:
1. Identify times in your life when you were at your happiest (give examples from your personal life, but also from your career life);
2. Identify times in your life when you were most proud (personal life and career);
3. Identify times in your life when you felt most fulfilled and satisfied (personal life and career);
4. Determine your most important values, based on your experiences of inner peace (here, if you need support, you can use a list of common personal values that I can provide you in a private message). The goal is to aim for approximately 10 top values;
5. Prioritise your “top” values – work your way through the list, comparing each value with each other until you have got your list in the correct order for you;
6. Reaffirm your values – check your top-priority values, and make sure they fit with your life and your vision for yourself.
Key points!!!
?? Identifying and taking the time to understand your values is an important and challenging exercise. Your personal values are central to who you are and WHO YOU WANT TO BECOME.
?? By becoming more aware of these important factors in your life, you can use them as a guide to make the best choice in any situation. Some of life’s decisions are really about determining what you value most. Despite whether we're consciously informed of our values or not, they guide every decision we make.
?? Life becomes far more fruitful and stress-free when we accept our values and abide by them - regardless of undesired life circumstances we might encounter along the way.
?? If we aspire to understand ourselves or other people on a deeper level, we must know what values are meaningful to us, how we live by our values and also how we can prioritise them.
?? Maturity is achieved when we learn how to delay quick-fix pleasures and instantly gratifying things for our long-term value instead. Sadly, some people will perpetuate around and around in circles for years until they look to recognise what drives them the most and determine how best to meet these motivations.
?? Once we know how living by our values moves us, we will completely understand how other people are also driven and motivated when they live in alignment with theirs. When we fully understand human values, we fully understand people.
Questions to reflect:
?Are you proud of your top values?
?Would you be comfortable to telling people about your core values?
?Would you respect the other one, even their core values are at the opposite side or different of your own?
?Would you speak up about your own core values, even these are not very popular or may put you in a minority?
?Do you hold yourself back and break your own core values just to keep the peace with others?
And now...
?? As I promised, I will make a confession about my own core values, after completing all the steps mentioned before and reflecting upon this topic. ??
Here they are (my top 5 with few more details or how I define them and, by the end… the rest of my own list):
?? FREEDOM – of thinking from various perspectives, freedom of speaking, freedom of being who I truly am, freedom from others judgments, assumptions, opinions, freedom from not being dependent on emotions
?? PURPOSE – significance, meaning, let something into this world, impacting the world with my existence, letting a legacy, something meaningful, marking with something purposeful into this universe
?? AUTHENTICITY – being who I truly am, permanently developing, becoming better and better, being an example, leading by example, seeking for truth / growth. I am today better than yesterday, tomorrow I will be better than today. The simple power of I AM.
?? BELONGING – connection, giving, understanding the other, empathy, relationship, accepting the others but in the same time challenging them to become better and better each day, challenging them to take responsibility, empowering the others, believing in their potential
?? ENTHUSIASM – optimism, having faith, positivism, learning from experiences, trusting in the universe, believing in better, believing in the power of action
And the list continues with:
Consistency, Trust, Love, Responsibility, Security, Certainty, Discretion, Kindness, Gentleness, Gratefulness, Honesty…
That’s about me and my own insights. Would you share few words about you? Be brave and start your self-discovery journey!!!??
In the next article you will find some ideas about helpful and unhelpful attitudes related to MATURITY AND CHARACTER. Hear you ??!
PS: BECOME BETTER!
Source of photo: my collection
Source of info: achology.com