What are your core values? Are You Struggling to Identify Them?
Are you living your life in relation to the things that are really important to you? Do you need help to identify your core values?
Understanding our values and the things that are truly important helps keep balance in our lives. If we are forced to do something that doesn’t fit with our values then we feel uncomfortable, unhappy or stressed.
What things in your life are most important to you? Make a list of the 20 things that you value highly or can’t live without, for example, love, faith, spirituality, fun, trust, honesty, travel, loyalty, security, family, friends etc.
Read it through and think about whether you are living your life with these values in mind. If fun is important to you, are you making time for it? Are friends important to you, are you being a good friend in return? If honesty is important to you, are you being truthful with others?
Feeling Disconnected?
If you are suffering from stress, a feeling of unhappiness or dissatisfaction then you may be disconnected from your values. We all need a set of guidelines to live by, or goals to work towards, to give our lives meaning or purpose and if we stray too far from these guidelines or goals we can cause a real imbalance.
Feeling Conflicted or Compromised?
Think carefully about the areas where you feel conflicted or compromised. Can you resolve this? How can you make changes? It may be as simple as making more time for something or someone who is important to you or it may mean a change in job or changing the way you work. It could mean changes to the people in your life.
Being around people who don’t value the same things as us can affect the balance in our lives. If we value honesty, then how can we be comfortable living, working or being friends with someone we know to be deceitful?
Does your partner have the same values as you? Reaching for different things, pulling in different directions and compromising on your values may be causing conflict and unhappiness in the relationship.
If you feel that someone in your life has values that aren’t aligned with yours, then you need to understand how you can manage this. For example, if you value travel but your partner doesn’t, then you may be able to agree on a compromise; an annual holiday together and one by yourself. It may not always be possible to compromise; if you value trust, and someone continually deceives you, then you may need to look at cutting them out of your life.
Our values are important. They shape the person we are, the decisions we make and our future. If we understand what is truly important to us we can identify what is causing sadness, stress or dissatisfaction in our lives. Only then can we address these imbalances and get our life, business or relationships back on track.