Being able to identify and set out your core values is most essential to you help you start to create a life that is fulfilling and meaningful.
Life is too short to spend time doing things you don’t love doing.
Your core values will act as a North Star and guiding light and help you when you’re making decisions in your life.
They will help you decide how you want to appear to the world, the things you do in your leisure time and how you run your business.
When you’re not sure what your values are, or you haven’t given yourself the space to set them out you can end up making decision and acting in a way that doesn’t fit your core fundamental self.
You know that feeling when something just doesn’t feel right? That’s generally because it’s against your values.
I remember working for a social enterprise, really what should have been a good organisation, that was rife with bullying, homophobia and misery. This company literally worked in a basement without windows and was run by a person with an ego bigger than anything I had ever encountered before.
Everything was tingling and telling me to run away. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to be part of this businesses story. And now with hindsight I know that was against all my personal values, if I had been clearer about what was intrinsically important to me at the time I would have left a lot sooner.
Want to know how to map out your core values to live a happy life? Go and check out this guide here to help you create your top 3 personal values.
Once you’re clear on the exercises to help you write out your core personal values come back and scan this list. You’re looking for the ones that jump out and ‘speak’ to you.
Your Personal Core Values List
Abundance. Accountability. Accuracy. Adventure. Altruism. Ambition. Assertiveness. Attractiveness. Balance. Belonging. Boldness. Bravery. Brilliance. Calmness. Carefulness. Challenge. Charity. Cleanliness. Commitment. Community. Compassion. Consistency. Contentment. Contribution. Control. Cooperation. Correctness. Courage. Creativity. Curiosity. Daring. Devoutness. Discipline. Discovery. Drive. Economy. Education. Effectiveness. Efficiency. Empathy. Endurance. Energy. Enjoyment. Enthusiasm. Environmentalism. Equality. Ethical. Excellence. Excitement. Expertise. Exploration. Expressiveness. Fairness. Faith. Family. Fearless. Fidelity. Fitness. Focus. Foresight. Freedom. Friendships. Giving. Good. Grace. Gratitude. Greatness. Growth. Happiness. Hardwork. Health. Helping people. Honesty. Honour. Humility. Humour. Independence. Ingenuity. Innovation. Inquisitiveness. Inspiring. Integrity. Intelligence. Intensity. Intuition. Justice. Kindness. Knowledge. Lawful. Leadership. Legacy. Love. Loyalty. Mastery. Merit. Mindful. Obedience. Openness. Order. Parenting. Perfection. Perseverance. Politeness. Positivity. Practicality. Professionalism. Prudence. Quality. Relationships. Reliability. Resilience. Responsibility. Rigor. Security. Selflessness. Self-reliance. Serenity. Service to others. Silence. Simplicity. Sincerity. Solitude. Spontaneity. Stability. Strategic. Strength. Structure. Success. Support. Surprise. Sympathy. Teamwork. Temperance. Thankfulness. Thoroughness. Thoughtfulness. Timeliness. Tolerance. Traditionalism. Trustworthiness. Truth. Understanding. Uniqueness. Usefulness. Versatility. Vision. Vitality. Warmth. Wealth. Well-being. Wisdom. Zeal.
Use this list to help you pick out the values that are important to you. Wondering how best to identify the ones that most important to you, or how to integrate them into your life.
And wondering at the end of this why values matter? Karen Naumann writes in the HuffPost about the 5 reasons why values matter are:
1. They help you gain self-respect
2. They help you be clear about what you want
3. They help you in making decisions
4. They help you enjoy your life and your work
5. They keep you focused and motivated
Are you an entrepreneur who wants more? Are you feeling a little out of touch with where you are and want to focus your business and your energy on the things that matter? Find out about how working with me can support you to get clear on your priorities, focus and build a financially independent business that also gives you joy!
