Has anyone ever asked you what your values are? It seems like such a simple question and yet it’s quite complicated! Values are such an abstract concept that people often don’t know what they actually are. Values are personality traits, beliefs or principles that increase your feeling of self worth. Values should make you feel more confident in your identity and when relied on, will guide you in making decisions you feel proud of.
A (very short) list of values:
- Creativity
- Fitness
- Spirituality
- Belonging
- Mastery
- Intellect
- Empathy
- Honesty
- Gratitude
- Loyalty
- Patriotism
- Health
- Altruism
- Professionalism
- Security
- Achievement
- Independence
- Faith
- Accomplishment
- Fluency
- Challenge
- Balance
What I would recommend you do is make a list of your core values. The internet is an amazing resource here, searching for lists of values will produce immediate results. Once you have your list, see if you can group any of them into categories. For instance, if you chose faith, spirituality, and belonging you could group them into spirituality. Or if you chose fitness, accomplishment and health you could consider them as a whole. Step three is to develop an action plan. Figure out how to incorporate you values into your life. With the example of spirituality, you could join a church community to feel a part of something while also nurturing your spiritual life. If you are working on the fitness goal, you may set a goal of a 5K run to satisfy your value of accomplishing something that also improves your health and fitness. Working toward goals that are aligned with your values will increase your sense of self, thus improving your self esteem.
