Need to change intro. Core Values. The road to self-discovery is one full of challenges. When finding yourself, you may not have all the answers to what defines you. Without a clear picture of who you are, you may not know how to move forward on the professional or social plane.
There might be days where you may feel connected with yourself and others where you wonder if you need to better yourself. Every day opens a new opportunity for growth, and the best way to achieve it is to find out your defining characteristics.
To discover your best self’s traits and apply them to your daily life, you must seek out what they are, keep them close, and dedicate your time to embracing them. These core values help us define our path in life and provide an example to follow when holding responsibilities.
By understanding your values, you can love yourself first, build a path to self-improvement, and apply them to most aspects of your life. By applying these core values, you learn more about yourself.
What Are Core Values?
Core values are the fundamental foundations that we hold to complete our work and the beliefs that we follow as individuals or groups. They define how we behave, work, act, and believe. When we embody these values, we show our true selves to differentiate ourselves from others.
We aren’t born with core values, so we are typically taught which values we should follow, which ones to value, and how we should carry out these values. Authority figures in our family or society, group association, and tradition are the sources of how we learn values.
These traits are malleable and ever-changing, depending on what situations we face in life. We hold the choice of embracing these core values positively or negatively. What one value may seem encouraging to one person may not be as appreciated by another.
Many core values allow you to commit to a goal that you want to follow. They help you make decisions based on what you want in your life and guide you to what you must follow. Many of these values and beliefs exist, and all of us choose which ones to follow.
Most businesses express their best core values when promoting what they do and what they want to accomplish. By following these values, people interpret how they perceive the company.
Why Are Core Values Important?
Overall, core values allow you to measure your worth. If you focus on your core values from a positive perspective, you’ll find value in your true self and express these ideas in your interactions with others.
When we apply core values to our work, we find out what we want to excel in and what needs improvement. Many of our decisions link directly to our core values and create a life path based on what you feel is right.
Core values give you guidance in life and encourage you to indulge in new experiences and adapt to them. When people realize their core values, they can drive to find their purpose and choose a career path or other life choices.
How one may view these values depends on what a person does. Someone with a core value of persuasion can highlight how a person can influence others on an idea. If a person has a more manipulating disposition, others might perceive it as a negative trait.
People who don’t have specific personal values may deem themselves unfitting for the ones they possess. If you learn to embrace what you have, you won’t need to look down on yourself.
Using Core Values to Better Yourself
Some people may have self-esteem issues about the types of skills or values they lack. Without these values and skills, they feel inferior to others around them and see themselves as unworthy. The pressure of finding your value may also keep you from appreciating yourself.
Positive perspectives on core values enable you to achieve, while negative views on core values limit your drive to succeed and blur your judgments.
By discovering your personal core values, you can combat these feelings of inferiority and dedicate yourself to meeting your own goals with a positive mindset. Finding your purpose links to how you view your values and the means of fulfilling your beliefs.
If you’re having trouble finding out ways to improve yourself, the first step you should take is to find out which core values matter to you the most.
By finding a purpose in life with your core values, you feel more satisfied and develop stronger coping for all kinds of difficulties. You may also feel more compelled to follow the desired direction once your values give you clarity.
How To Find Your Core Values
While it’s understandable for you to have as many core values as you want, it’s best to start small with your goals. Most people pick at least five core values to focus on to avoid overloading yourself. It would be best for you to think about what’s most important in your life to you, what success means to you, and what motivates your actions.
There are a few factors you must consider to find which core values resonate with you. It’s straightforward to follow once you do some thorough thinking. Once you put these factors together, you can decide which ones you should focus on expanding.
Finding your values is done through trial and error, so if one value doesn’t work for you, you may discover a better one. Sometimes, you may lack the skills to achieve a core value you believe in, but that hurdle offers you the opportunity to learn these skills to achieve your values’ goals.
Write Down Your Values
You can consult a list of personal core values to see which ones fit you best. There are hundreds of core values to choose from, and our core values list offers plenty of inspiration. If you have any values that aren’t present on the list, add some of your own. The more examples you have, the more you can spotlight what matters to you.
When writing down your values, you can also categorize the values that might be similar to each other or have a connection. If the values you choose relate to living a healthy, balanced life, consider placing them together to pick which one resonates with you the most.
Consider Your Influences
Since core values are taught to us, you may have learned them through anyone. When you admire someone else’s core values, you care about those values, too. These influences can come from your family, friends, and famous figures. If you notice a pattern between your role models, you can come to a conclusion of which core values you’d want to embody the most.
For example, if you appreciate a friend’s ability to spread joy or indulge others with their humor, you’d typically want to live up to their greatness on some level. If you admire the progress of a historical figure, you may find yourself interested in the actions they did.
Think About Your Experiences
The events in our lives typically shape the kind of people we become. Many of your values may stem from the experiences you live through and build perspectives of yourself and the world. Most decisions people make in an instant are emotion-driven rather than based on logic.
Self-reflection plays a crucial role in finding your core values. By looking back at everything you’ve done, you create a clear picture of finding out what defines you as a unique person.
Depending on how you react to situations, it may give you some insight into what types of core values you’ll develop and let you accept new ones or change the ones you already hold. No experience is the same for everyone, so everybody has their own perspectives.
If you’ve experienced any form of failure, you should learn from your mistakes when you pursue a new goal. By keeping this in mind, you’re more driven towards finding success. Try writing about how you couldn’t meet a goal, how you didn’t live up to your values, and how you’ll succeed next time.
Think About How You Feel If You Go Against Your Values
In some circumstances, some people may have to make decisions that go against their core values. If you think honesty and transparency are essential to you, then telling a lie to cover up a mistake might leave you uneasy.
When discovering which core values you believe are essential to you, you should think about how you would feel if you had to contradict the values you hold. If you go against values you don’t resonate with, it’ll be less damaging to how you perceive yourself.
You may also discover what goes against your values based upon the values of other people. Their values might upset you depending on how much their values clash with yours. If an acquaintance of yours has a core value of empathizing with others, you might be upset at them for being too concerned about others’ personal lives.
Once you differentiate your reactions to these potential scenarios, you can pick which ones are more important than others if you had to go against them. It may take time to figure all of them out, but once you do, you can see which values are your strong points.
Personal Core Values List by Category
After coming to terms with how you view the world and the people around you, you might be ready to narrow down the personal core values that connect to your purpose. How much of a challenge this task and how long it’ll take to accomplish might vary from person to person, but is still attainable to many.
Typically, you should feel positive about yourself once you perform any actions related to your core values. As you move forward in life, your core values might have a direct impact on the choices you make, the places you’ll go, and the people you’ll meet. If you keep this mindset, you might have an easier time finding the core values that define you.
There are hundreds of core values that exist to resonate with people and define them individually. Most of these values revolve around how a person acts and the actions a person can do. If you’re struggling to figure out which core values you regard the most, Brene Brown created an extensive list of core values for you to decide upon.
How To Face Failure With Your Personal Core Values
When you commit to the core values that have high regard for, you’ll want to do whatever it takes to uphold them. We strive to achieve the goals in our lives according to our values. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t. Upholding these values might be challenging for some. At times, we may fall into a rut when we don’t accomplish our desired goals.
Thankfully, there are many resources and outlets to go to when you’re in need of assistance in your life. You may find some of them more effective than others, but most of these options can make a difference in how you face your problems.
If you’re having trouble overcoming your shortcomings or dealing with recent failures related to your values, you can set up some alternative plans and rework your plans with skilled professionals. A therapist or counselor can give you insight on how to reapply your core values to move forward past your mistake.
Sometimes, you can use your failures to fuel your values. If certain events in your life or environment build stress upon you, you can mold these influences into the core values you hold. If you feel that nobody’s maintaining order in your school, workplace, or town, it may initiate you to focus more on leadership and order to prevent discourse from spreading.
Avoiding Negativity
Sometimes, we subconsciously make negative judgment upon ourselves and others based on our personal core values. It may spawn from jealousy or exaggerated pride. When we crave acceptance, satisfaction, and fulfillment, we may harp about how we wish that we had what others have. If these feelings build, you’ll stress out and feel miserable.
If we do possess a value or skill that others don’t, we may flaunt how better we are than them. In either case, judging people by their values alone might cause a rift between others when left unattended. Most of our responses to negativity grow from a feeling of emotional unrest. Some people can’t use logic to keep negative feelings to the side.
When you come to terms with your personal core values, you should learn to build yourself up alongside others instead of tearing down the people around you. By doing this, you’ll contribute to creating a stable and accepting environment. This might be impossible to achieve, but it never hurts in trying to make improvements that affect everybody.
If you chart out the feelings you have about yourself and others in relation to unattainable values, you’ll find solace and clear your mind of your troubles or worries.
How to Deal with Negative People and Their Core Values
No matter what types of core values you live by, you’ll always come across people with ideals that clash with yours. Several of these people may hold values that you may deem as negative. For example, if a person believes that putting effort into work is a waste of time and that winging everything you do is better, you might feel cross and think that they’re hopeless.
Instead of letting them drain the positivity out of you, it would be best for you to try practicing tolerance towards these people to view their perspectives without openly lashing out with counterpoints. If this option doesn’t work, you can choose to avoid them as much as you can. You can’t permanently shut away these people, but you can find others who share the same values as you.
Once you find balance in dealing with positive and negative core values, you’ll find yourself more determined to stay dedicated to the paths you follow as an individual. Once you complete that, you can use this experience to build the values you hold and shape them into stronger beliefs. The only way this can happen is through the effort you put into doing it.
What Can I Do to Make It Easier to Find My Top Core Values?
If you’ve narrowed down your list of core values to at least 10, you may have too many on your mind. If you have too many, you may overload from the stress of meeting all of them. When deciding which values matter to you, it would be best for you to choose up to five values. Then, you can decide which set amount of values you should apply to your life.
While everyone has their ideas for limits, picking a smaller number of values to focus on should allow you more time for developing a plan to integrate these personal core values into your life.
Integrating Your Personal Core Values
Once you grasp what your personal core values are, you can begin tracking your progress for implementing them in your life. Most people tend to keep a journal to track their core values in their daily lives.
Writing about your core values is an effective form of psychological intervention, and experts like James Clear highly endorse personal values journaling. By delving into your spirituality, you can express yourself by giving yourself an overview of the values and skills that stand out to you. In short, self-reflection on paper opens up a new way to find a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Some people write to vent about their deepest feelings and complications that they endure in their lives. Your personal core values are vital components that you can integrate into whatever situations or people you may face.
It should allow you to be aware of how you make your decisions and avoid misunderstandings with others. There’s no limit to how much you can track in your journal or how often you should write in it.
It can be as simple as writing down how much exercise you do, how many paintings you’ve completed, or how many people you’ve talked to throughout the year. If you keep a journal to help track who you are, you can write down anything.
Building Relationships with Your Values
You can integrate these values into the relationships you build. Family is a staple relationship system that you can expand on who you deem is close to you. Most of these relations form through transparency, trust, understanding, empathy, and full of order.
One way to integrate your personal core values into your relationships is to talk about them with others. By consistently talking about your values with others, they’ll be more inclined to know your ideals as a person. There’s also a chance that they may adopt these values to improve or expand theirs.
If they don’t fully grasp what you’re interested in, having these conversations can still build their support for how you tackle your core values and fixate on the goals you want to accomplish. By building support, you’ll find yourself more inclined to follow your goals and cement the type of person you choose to be.
Using Core Values in Your Life
If you’re ready to focus on your core values, try talking about them daily. If you integrate them into your vocabulary, you’ll view yourself as a person fit for those values. It’s an excellent way to reinforce the skills you’ll need to reach your goals.
Using them as motivational keys gives you leverage for giving your best effort throughout the day. For example, if you work in a job specializing in computer data, you may want to dedicate your time to keep your work consistent, accurate, and organized.
If you leave yourself notes to follow or track your progress with a journal, you can see which values resonate with you and which ones don’t. As you go through your day, be vigilant of what you do so you can reflect upon it at the end of the day.
Using Your Core Values in the Workplace
Another way to integrate your core values is by applying them to your job or career. All companies have their guidelines and core values that they establish for everyone to carry out. Many companies establish these values for the company to succeed and present these fulfilled promises to the public.
Most companies do their best to uphold their clients’ values through their services, employees, and the higher-ups’ honesty. By committing to your values, you set an example for other employees to do the same. If you value communication, try reaching out to other coworkers or clients to build morale and add substance to your role.
Most of the time, you’ll use your core values to establish order and stability to reduce negativity. If you experience stress, try to carry out your core values, put them aside, and take a break. Once you think it’s the right time to go back to embodying your values, you may continue.
Plan Your Goals
An excellent motivation for enhancing your personal core values is to plan long-term and short-term goals that fit your schedule. Dedicate a few hours each day to deciding how to fulfill the prerequisites of your core values.
You can accomplish this by keeping your mind clear from troubles and focusing on what you feel would be best for you during the day. If you want to focus on being compassionate, try scheduling an outing with your friends. Listen to what they have to say about their lives and offer some insight to help them feel better.
Whether you plan your goals for a day or a year, you should live by the values you hold to reach them. By creating a plan to follow, you can navigate through life in ways that are comfortable with your personal values.
Try to keep your plans relevant to match your values. Not every activity you experience may match the values you have and might not give you satisfaction. To counteract this, try to make plans to focus on multiple values at once.
Chart Your Behaviors and Observations of Your Peers
Another way to stay aware of your personal core values in your life is to pay attention to the people around you. If you’re working towards a goal of self-improvement, a good takeaway sign of progress is the personal impact you have on other people.
For example, if you’re building up your leadership values, you should pay attention to your friends or coworkers. If you observe that they’re listening to your insight with great intent, you’re more likely to find confidence as a leader. If they seem uninterested, you may need to make improvements to your skills to make an impactful progress as an authority figure.
Reward Yourself for Living Up to Your Values
Another encouraging way to integrate your personal core values into your life is to set aside rewards whenever you meet your goals. You can reward yourself for both long-term and short-term goals. By rewarding yourself, you’ll have more encouragement to keep on sticking to your beliefs and feel good whenever you do something related to it.
These rewards can range from setting time aside to dine out or go shopping to treating yourself and buying the newest installment of your favorite book series. The type of reward you want all depends on you. The point of this reward system is to reinforce your core values into tangible enjoyment that keeps on building.
While some rewards might have material value, you can also reward yourself through a sociable lens. Once you meet the goals you set, you can put time aside to socialize with others. You could dedicate time in your week to spending time with your friends, family, pets, or others you don’t get to see on a regular basis.
Can I Change the Personal Values of Others?
The level of everyone’s attachment to their core values may differ depending on the person. Someone’s views may be so strong that nothing can sway them to look through someone else’s point of view. The reason might stem from how long they’ve held onto a personal value and stuck to it.
Perhaps someone believes that there’s no use in doing good deeds for everyone and that they’re meaningless in the long run. You could show them an act of kindness to prove that there is worth in every action we do for others. If you could give them a hands-on perspective of what you do, it could affect how they see the world. If not, they can still see how it’s important to you.
You may be able to give a person with absolute personal values some insight into perspectives they might oppose if you stay persistent and open-minded. If you live by your values, perhaps you can influence others who still want to discover theirs.
Conclusion
To discover your true self, you must decide which core values define the kind of person you choose to be. You can connect with many values, even if you don’t believe they match your ethics. Some of these values may be set in stone, but it’s typically encouraging to learn new perspectives.
While many values develop in use due to how we’re all brought up, there are still many we can choose to embrace or change. Many of these values coincide with each other and can be categorized based upon their similarities. By choosing which ones fit you, you can find out your purpose.
If you believe you have the minimum core values you’d want to abide by, there are many ways to track your progress in following them and applying them to how you live your life. Many of the core values in your personal life have the same importance as those established by companies.
You can develop these beliefs and values with your family and friends or work on them alone to emulate independent decision making. The most convenient way to reflect on your actions and values is to keep a written record for whatever amount of time you want to measure.
While others may guide you along the way, only you have the power to decide your values and find yourself.
Leave A Comment