what are my core values?
When we come to a point in life when we are really diving deep in thinking about…
What do I really want from life?
How do I make this big decision?
Where do I go from here?
How do I get unstuck?
What do I want my future to look like?
How do I come back from the bump in the road?
Or any other big question…
…a great place to start looking, is at our values. What do we hold most important in life? What do we value most?
Getting more awareness around these things, can really help to guide us to the next best steps for us, as an individual.
Follow the steps below to help you identify where your core values may lie. This is an exercises we can do again and again throughout our lives, as our priorities can change over time.
Step One
Below is a list of lots of different values. There is no hierarchy within these values, they are all equal. No one is better than another one. Take your journal or something to write with, and write down your personal top 20 values from this list.
When you’ve done this, have a look at your list. Are there any that you picked because you thought you should? Are there any that you would swap?
Abundance
Activism
Advancement
Adventure
Aesthetics
Ambition
Animal Rights
Art
Attention to detail
Authenticity
Balance
Beauty
Calmness
Challenging myself
Change and Variety
Charity
Collaboration
Community
Compassion
Competence
Competition
Communication
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Diversity
Development
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy
Environment
Equality
Equity
Excitement
Expertise
Fashion
Fairness
Family
Feminism
Financial Security
Freedom
Friendship
Generosity
Global awareness
Global peace
Growth
Happiness
Harmony
Hard work
Health
Helping others
Honesty
Honour
Humour
Imagination
Independence
Influence
Innovation
Inspiring others
Integrity
Intellectual status
Intelligence
Joy
Kindness
Knowledge
Laughter
Learning
Leisure
Literature
Living your dreams
Love for myself
Love for others
Moral fulfillment
Music
Nature
Open communication
Opening myself to love
Optimism
Passion
Truthfulness
Patriotism
Peace
Persistence
Personal expressions
Personal growth
Perspective
Physical Challenge
Play
Pleasure
Positivity
Power
Precision
Professionalism
Protecting the environment
Pride
Quality of life
Quietness
Recognition
Respect
Results
Risk-Taking
Security
Self-control
Self respect
Sensuality
Self-care
Spirituality
Spontaneity
Stability
Storytelling
Style
Taking responsibility
Thinking time
Tidiness
Time
Tolerance
Tranquility
Trust
Wealth
Wonder and awe
Workmanship
Wisdom
STEP TWO
What’s missing? Are there any values, or things you find important to you in life, that are not written in the list above?
You can add these to your list.
STEP THREE
Now you have a list of 20 or more values, see if you can group them into categories that are similar. For example: Integrity, Honesty, Truthfulness.
Pick the word out of that category that you have the strongest association.
This will lead you to a shortlist of your core values.
STEP FOUR
Now you have your list of core values. Try them on for size and sit with them a bit. For the next few weeks, reflect on these, and see if they are true for you and fit into your life.
You can always tweak, change and adjust them so they feel right for you, and a real reflection of what is important for you.
STEP FIVE
In getting to know your values better…
What have you learnt about yourself?
What have you learnt about your life, and where you are now?
What have you learnt about where you would like to be in the future?
Were there any surprises? Or any lightbulb moments?
What will you do know with this learning you’ve gathered?