Tuesday Truth: What Are Your Values?

Yesterday I listened to a podcast episode that got me thinking about values. I feel like the word "values" is thrown around so much that it’s almost lost it’s meaning, but as I began to think about the subject in a more concrete way--and as I started to ponder what it means to really have values--I thought, "What are my personal values, anyway?" 

Your values are what guide your behaviors and actions, and they often determine what you place importance on in your life. If you value success and achievement, then finding these things in you career will be very important. If you value service and compassion, then you will be a lot happier if you're giving your time and energy to a cause you believe in. If you value health and fitness, then taking care of your body and spending lots of time being active will make you much more content.

Yes, the above logic is pretty basic, but it's interesting to me how few of us (myself included!) have clearly defined our values and how few of us live according to those values on a daily basis. However, we all have values, whether we've clearly defined them or not.

For instance, although I haven't ever written out my values, per se, I know that I highly value creativity and joy. These are two things that I'm constantly focusing on in my own life, so it's pretty clear that they're important to me. 

But, I think there's something inspiring about writing out your values and using them as a guidepost for everything that you do. 

Need to make a tough career decision? Look at your list of personal values and decide which path is most aligned with those values. Need a quick reminder why you're working so hard on a passion project? Look at your list of values and it will probably provide that reminder in a jiffy. 

Not sure where to start in defining your values? Here's what I recommend: 

Look at the list of values below (pulled from this great post on values). Scan each column and jot down the words that jump out at you for any reason. Then look at your list and circle the words that most resonate. Keep narrowing your list down until you have a list of about 4-6 top words that feel most important to you. These are your values!  Write them down on a piece of paper and post them somewhere that you will see them. 

Once you've identified your values, you can use them as a touchpoint for making life decisions, understanding your emotions, and thinking about how to make changes in order to feel more fulfilled in your daily life.

LIST OF VALUES:

Accountability
Accuracy
Achievement 
Adventurousness 
Altruism 
Ambition 
Assertiveness 
Balance 
Being the best 
Belonging 
Boldness 
Calmness 
Carefulness 
Challenge 
Cheerfulness 
Clear-mindedness 
Commitment 
Community
Compassion 
Competitiveness
Consistency 
Contentment 
Continuous Improvement
Contribution 
Control 
Cooperation 
Correctness 
Courtesy 
Creativity 
Curiosity 
Decisiveness 
Democraticness
Dependability 
Determination 
Devoutness 
Diligence 

Discipline 
Discretion 
Diversity 
Dynamism 
Economy 
Effectiveness 
Efficiency 
Elegance 
Empathy 
Enjoyment 
Enthusiasm 
Equality
Excellence
Excitement 
Expertise 
Exploration 
Expressiveness 
Fairness 
Faith 
Family-orientedness 
Fidelity 
Fitness 
Fluency 
Focus
Freedom 
Fun 
Generosity 
Goodness
Grace 
Growth 
Happiness 
Hard Work
Health
Helping Society 
Holiness 
Honesty 

Honor
Humility 
Independence 
Ingenuity 
Inner Harmony
Inquisitiveness 
Insightfulness 
Intelligence 
Intellectual Status
Intuition
Joy 
Justice
Leadership
Legacy 
Love 
Loyalty 
Making a difference 
Mastery Merit 
Obedience 
Openness 
Order 
Originality 
Patriotism
Perfection 
Piety 
Positivity
Practicality 
Preparedness 
Professionalism 
Prudence 
Quality-orientation
Reliability 
Resourcefulness 
Restraint 
Results-oriented

Rigor 
Security 
Self-actualization
Self-control 
Selflessness 
Self-reliance 
Sensitivity 
Serenity 
Service 
Shrewdness 
Simplicity 
Speed 
Spontaneity 
Stability 
Strategic
Strength 
Structure 
Success
Support 
Teamwork 
Temperance 
Thankfulness 
Thoroughness 
Thoughtfulness 
Timeliness 
Tolerance
Traditionalism 
Trustworthiness 
Truth-seeking 
Understanding 
Uniqueness 
Unity 
Usefulness 
Vision 
Vitality

When I did this exercise (which I found very hard--my original list had 22 words!), I came up with the following values: CREATIVITY, BALANCE, HEALTH, HARD WORK, JOY, and LOVE. 

I know this list may sound cliche, but really, these are the things that I want to focus on in my life, and I want every decision I make to take these qualities into consideration.

There are also many other applications for values, including coming up with values for your small business or company, values for your blog (what are you trying to impart to your readers/community?), and even values for your family as a whole (what do you want to instill in your children?). These values may align with your personal values, or they may be somewhat different.  

What do you think? Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes! If you do the exercise above, I'd love to hear what you come up with. Feel free to post to comments so we can see/share ;) 

Hoping that defining your values gives you a deeper sense of direction and purpose today...