Early on when I work with coaching clients, I enquire about their core values. Most of the time, people do not know what they are. So I wanted to create this guide, to help and get started.
What are Values?
Core values are what drives you, what motivates you. You can think of them as your North Star, or your guiding light. They help you navigate through difficult times and important decisions. Your core values represent what is the most important to you. They are principles that you hold to be of worth in your life. Values are not chosen. They are intrinsic to you. Your individual values are as unique as your fingerprints.
How can I find my Values?
There are a variety of techniques to discover your values. It is important to note that your values are already there, inside of you. This means that you do not develop or acquire a value – they are expressed in your everyday life.
It is helpful to find a word to express our values, however, because the meaning of a value is so personal, it is best to write down what a value truly means to us. You can think of using the word as a shortcut, if you wish.
You will find below a sample list of words that may resonate with you or spark something. Remember that the purpose of the exercise is to identify which personal alue you resonate the most with.
Accuracy
Achievement
Adventurousness
Altruism
Ambition
Assertiveness
Balance
Being the best
Belonging
Boldness
Calmness
Carefulness
Challenge
Cheerfulness
Clarity
Commitment
Community
Compassion
Competitiveness
Consistency
Contentment
Contribution
Control
Cooperation
Correctness
Courtesy
Creativity
Curiosity
Decisiveness
Determination
Diligence
Discipline
Discretion
Diversity
Dynamism
Economy
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Elegance
Empathy
Enjoyment
Enthusiasm
Equality
Excellence
Expertise
Exploration
Expressiveness
Fairness
Faith
Family
Fidelity
Fitness
Fluency
Focus
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Goodness
Grace
Growth
Happiness
Hard Work
Health
Help
Honesty
Honour
Humility
Independence
Ingenuity
Inner Harmony
Inquisitiveness
Insightfulness
Intelligence
Intellectual Status
Intuition
Joy
Justice
Leadership
Legacy
Love
Loyalty
Making a difference
Mastery
Merit
Obedience
Openness
Order
Originality
Perfection
Positivity
Practicality
Preparedness
Professionalism
Prudence
Quality-orientation
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Restraint
Results-oriented
Rigour
Security
Self-actualization
Self-control
Selflessness
Self-reliance
Sensitivity
Serenity
Service
Shrewdness
Simplicity
Soundness
Speed
Spirituality
Spontaneity
Stability
Structure
Success
Support
Teamwork
Temperance
Thankfulness
Thoroughness
Thoughtfulness
Timeliness
Tolerance
Traditionalism
Trustworthiness
Truth-seeking
Understanding
Uniqueness
Unity
Usefulness
Vision
Vitality
Finding your values: Instructions
- Read the whole list of words. Try each word and see how it feels.
- Identify approximately 10 values that are important to you.
- Narrow the list down to three or four values. The following questions may be helpful:
- What’s important to me?
- What’s important to me about life?
- What’s important to me about work?
- How do I want to be remembered?
- When do I feel the most upset or irritated? (look for the value not being met)
- When do I feel the most alive or the most satisfied? (look for the value being met)
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