Our values are what drives us the most. They are what we believe is important, most likely from our childhood, according to neuroscience.
Our values are influenced by our belief system, but also by the context we are in. We can be influenced by others on what is valuable or not and we chose our values based on the connection we want to have with others.
I believe values can change overtime. In fact, the more you work on yourself and connect to who you want to be, the most likely you will find that your values have shifted.
Why does it matter?
Most of the people are ignorant of their own values and just go with the flow. The thing with values, is they are associated with our reward system in our brain. When we do something aligned with one of them, our brain releases dopamine and we feel good.
This is why identifying your values can really help when reaching a goal. We have a lot of unintentional thoughts created by our brain, to secure ourselves. Being able to root yourself with your values will tremendously help you hijack this kind of process. Identifying your values help you get unstuck for good and achieve things you would never imagine are possible.
It is a process that can take time, though. Sometimes, it is great to do it several times before you are really able to fine tune what your values really are.
How to find your values
When you go through this process, tune into yourself. Try to observe the reactions on your body. If you feel aligned and calm, you are most likely going to figure out what these values are.
Think about actions you took when you were driven the most, when you were willing to take big risks. Think about situations when you feel fully aligned with yourself.
- What were these actions?
- Why were you committed to take action?
- Why did it matter for you?
From the answers above and the list of values below, identify the values that resonates the most with you.
- Abundance
- Achievement
- Advancement
- Adventure
- Affection
- Appreciation
- Authenticity
- Authority
- Autonomy
- Balance
- Beauty
- Boldness
- Career
- Caring
- Challenge
- Change
- Charisma
- Citizenship
- Clarity
- Commonality
- Communication
- Community
- Compassion
- Competency
- Connection Contentment
- Contribution
- Cooperation
- Courage
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Determination
- Diversity
- Effectiveness
- Encouragement
- Endurance
- Enjoyment
- Entertainment
- Entrepreneurship
- Excellence
- Excitement
- Facilitation
- Fairness
- Faith
- Fame
- Family
- Finances
- Finesse
- Fitness
- Forgiveness
- Freedom
- Friendship
- Fun
- Generosity
- Goodness
- Grace
- Gratitude
- Growth
- Happiness
- Harmony
- Home
- Honesty
- Humanity
- Humor
- Influence
- Inner
- Harmony
- Innovation
- Integrity
- Intelligence
- Invention
- Involvement
- Justice
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Learning
- Love
- Love of Career
- Loyalty
- Making a difference
- Meaningful
- Work
- Openness
- Optimism
- Order
- Patience
- Peace
- Personal Development
- Pleasure
- Popularity
- Power
- Professionalism
- Prosperity
- Quality
- Reciprocity
- Recognition
- Relationship
- Religion
- Renewal
- Reputation
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Security
- Self-Respect
- Service
- Speed
- Spirituality
- Stability
- Status
- Strength
- Success
- Teamwork
- Trust
- Wealth
- Wellness
- Willingness
- Wisdom
Try to narrow down the highlighted valued to 2 or 3 (maximum 3, so that you don’t spread your attention on too many things).
From time to time, come back to your values and check with yourself if you are still aligned with them.
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