Do you know what your values are?

First Published 18 August 2022

Over the years I have worked in, and with many organisations who proudly display their corporate/brand values. 

One of those organisations even ran a session on thinking about our own personal values.  This was a new one on me.  I had never really spent any time articulating my values – to be honest, I don’t think it was even in my awareness to think about it.

Over the years, some of these values and mission statements have felt a bit mumbo jumbo to me, they didn’t really resonate with me – or perhaps I just didn’t understand them!

And then lightbulb💡moment – perhaps they made no sense to me because they weren’t aligned to my personal values – you know – those things I had given no thought to, or at the very least, listened to a talk about and then went straight back to work having not worked them out for myself!

Having now done the work (I even have a post it note on my monitor with my wee list), it’s now so much more obvious that when I am not living my life based on my values, that’s when life has felt unsettling and/or overwhelming.  It doesn’t quite flow in a chilled harmonious kinda way.

The individual values that we all live by can be so different – this might explain in part why we get on really well with some people, yet butt heads with others for seemingly no reason.  We could be money driven (I was surprised to find that this wasn’t as high up my list as I had expected); family driven; looking for fun; satisfaction; a level of connection or a need for security.  There could be an element of needing to be in the spotlight, or firmly behind the scenes.  A need for recognition and power, or a drive to just know a job was well done with no fanfare.

There are so many different things that drive us as human beings, which can lead to a massive array of values for being and living and interacting with each other.

A great wee exercise to do is to take a moment to work out what your thoughts are around values – what drives you or makes you tick?  Try not to go overly corporate in your values – unless that’s how you tick!  Find at least 3 that work for you. 

And then part 2 is to work out, in which areas or your life you are or aren’t living your values.  Where you aren’t living your values, what tweaks can you make to move you closer to being aligned with them?  Where you are – can you do that more?

If you need a wee hand in working them out, I know a great coach who would love to work with you 😉 (you know where that zoffee link is by now!).

If you have already worked them out in the past – have a look again and see if they are still relevant.  I’d love to hear any lightbulb moments that may show up for you – if they do just hit comment or use the contact page!