Values - the undercurrent of your life

What are values? Oxford Dictionary describes them as beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important in life. 

Our values are the foundations of our lives. They’re what give us direction, purpose and meaning. In your business and life, they will determine how you work with others, run your business and manage yourself to succeed as an entrepreneur or a leader. For example, people with integrity always do the right thing even when it’s not easy or convenient. People who value kindness treat others well regardless of whether they know them personally or not. Those who value compassion have a deep sense of empathy for everyone around them no matter their circumstances in life.

If we go against one of these "core" values knowingly or not, we're going to feel the effects pretty quickly: resistance and frustration will come rushing in like a tidal wave.

I didn't know much about values until I was in my late 20s and started personal development work. And really, I started doing some deep research into them only a year ago when I embarked on my Human Potential Coach training journey.

There are a lot of great resources around the subject. The ones I can recommend are ‘True Happiness’ by Dr Mark Atkinson, https://www.viacharacter.org/ VIA Institute founded by Martin Seligman, Dare to Lead and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. 

Here's a Values Clarification Exercise you can do on your own or with a partner, colleague or coach. I’ll do mine as an example.

Read through the list and highlight/bold the values that are very important to you. Don’t overthink it, trust your intuition.

Accountability Achievement Adaptability Adventure Ambition Authenticity Balance Beauty Belonging Career Caring Challenge Collaboration Commitment Community Compassion Competence Confidence Connection Contribution Cooperation Courage Creativity Curiosity Dignity Diversity Empathy Environment Efficiency Equality Excellence Fairness Faith Family Financial stability Forgiveness Freedom Friendship Fun Generosity Gratitude Growth Happiness Harmony Health Home Honesty Hope Humility Humor Inclusion Independence Individuality Innovation Initiative Intelligence Intuition Joy Justice Kindness Knowledge Leadership Learning Legacy Love Loyalty Making a difference Mindfulness Nature Openness Optimism Order Patience Perfection Perseverance Personal fulfilment Power Recognition Relationships Reliability Resourcefulness Respect Responsibility Risk -taking Safety Security Self-discipline Self-respect Service Simplicity Spirituality Success Teamwork Time Tradition Trust Truth Uniqueness Usefulness Vision Vulnerability Wealth Well-being Wholeheartedness Wisdom

Insert your own unlisted value here:

Copy the values below and remove all that are not highlighted. 

Achievement Authenticity Balance Beauty Caring Challenge Commitment Competence Connection Empathy Efficiency Excellence Fairness Fun Generosity Gratitude Growth Happiness Health Honesty Humility Humor Intuition Joy Kindness Learning Love Loyalty Making a difference Mindfulness Nature Optimism Order Perseverance Personal fulfilment Relationships Reliability Respect Responsibility Self-discipline Self-respect Simplicity Usefulness Well-being Wisdom

Group all similar values together in a maximum of 5 groups. Group them in a way that makes sense to you, personally. If you have more than five groupings, drop those least important.

1. Achievement, Challenge, Commitment, Competence, Excellence, Growth, Learning, Making a difference, Perseverance, Respect, Responsibility, Self-discipline

2. Authenticity, Generosity, Gratitude, Happiness, Honesty, Intuition, Personal fulfilment, Reliability, Self-respect, Wisdom

3. Balance, Fun, Health, Humour, Joy, Mindfulness, Nature, Optimism, Well-being

4. Beauty, Efficiency, Order, Simplicity, Usefulness

5. Caring, Connection, Empathy, Fairness, Kindness, Love, Loyalty, Relationships

Choose one word within each grouping that best represents the label for the entire group. Again, do not overthink your labels. There are no right or wrong answers. You are defining the answer that is right for you. 

1. Growth

2. Wisdom

3. Well-being

4. Simplicity 

5. Connection

Pick two core values and organize your secondary values to give them more depth.

Growth:

Achievement, Challenge, Commitment, Competence, Excellence, Learning, Making a difference, Perseverance, Respect, Responsibility, Self-discipline, Beauty, Efficiency, Order, Simplicity, Usefulness.

Connection:

Authenticity, Generosity, Gratitude, Happiness, Honesty, Intuition, Personal fulfillments, Reliability, Self-respect, Wisdom, Balance, Fun, Health, Humour, Joy, Mindfulness, Nature, Optimism, Well-being, Caring, Empathy, Fairness, Kindness, Love, Loyalty, Relationships. 

Reflection:

• How do you feel when you are aligned with the first value?

• How do you feel when you are aligned with the second value?

• When did you live these values? How did it feel?

• When did you go against these values? How did it feel?

• What have you learned from this exercise?

Review your core values daily (morning ritual is a good time for it).