WHAT DO YOU VALUE MOST IN LIFE?

ARE YOU HONORING YOUR VALUES?

DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE NOT VALUING THEM? 

We’re going to roll up our sleeves and start to get clear about what we value most in our life.  While this may seem simple, what you value most can be tricky to identify.  This week I’m covering what a core value is, why being clear on your core values is essential, and sharing a FREE resource that will guide you through the process of getting clear about what is most important to you in your life.

First, let’s start by understanding what a value is: a value is something meaningful to you, that motivates and centers you.  It can be a belief, a guide, or even a way to decide what is right and wrong for you.  Companies, religious organizations, groups, and teams all define values that act as a guide.  We also know that we hold values for ourselves as individuals.  

Many of us hold a set of values in our lives some we decided on, others we learned elsewhere, but underneath all of what we value in life, we have developed a set of core values.  These core values are what drives us at our center.  I think of core values as a compass.  A compass has the specific job of orienting, navigating, and informing the direction of my path. ore values, like a compass, also give insight into when I am headed in the wrong direction. They are the true north that guides the direction my life will travel.

A core value is what you consider to be the center of who you are and how you define what that value means. Let’s look at an example: if I hold the core value of supporting my family, this may look like enjoying a family meal each week.  Weekly meals have become important to me because that face-to-face connection is important.  To someone else, being supportive of their family may look like working in a high-powered job that provides financial stability for her family.  When we start to look at our core values, we need to define what the value means to ourselves specifically.  The challenge is to go deep, and really get specific on what the value means to you. 

Once you are clear on your core values, it’s time to get to work on taking a look at your life through this very clear lens.  To build on the example of honoring family, how is my life oriented to honor this value?  Is my schedule too busy to see my family? Do I live too far away?  In answering these questions, if it becomes clear that I’m not honoring this value in my life, then what needs to be changed?  For some of us, it’s small changes like adjusting a schedule; for others, it may mean a big change.  For me, when I started to clear up what my core values are, it became a liberation — I was able to really look at the areas of my life and see where I was honoring my core values and where I was further away from them.   

Friend, because this work has been so important in my journey to living the life I want, I’ve created a 9-page FREE Core Values Workbook that will guide you through this process of getting clear on what your core values are and why it matters.

I hope you’ll join me in this important process!