What are core values?
Core values are WHO YOU ARE TODAY. They are your unique signature in the way you express yourself and interact with the world.
When you live in alignment with your values and make decisions based on it, life feels meaningful, leading to more satisfying outcomes.
Yet, the journey to clarifying your values can be challenging, as it requires introspection beyond societal expectations or desires.
The aim is to unearth the values that are lived out in everyday actions and decisions, rather than choosing from a list that might prompt selecting what appears most admirable or acceptable.
The challenge often lies in transitioning from intellectualizing values to recognizing them in your life experiences.
Identifying values can sometimes be challenged by the difficulty in articulating them and trying to confine it to a single word.
Exploring values through different lenses can provide clarity.
Reflecting on past moments of joy or fulfillment where your values were being honored, examining feelings during times of frustration or anger to identify suppressed values, and considering non-negotiable elements for personal fulfillment are all effective strategies.
Recognizing the values that are so important to you that they might be overly exercised or imposed into others can also offer insights. For example: the value of orderliness being expressed with perfectionism. Focus on orderliness as you core value. That’s what’s important here.
A powerful tool in this journey involves listing your top core values, ranking them, and evaluating how well each is being honored (by scoring your sense of satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10). This exercise illuminates areas of life where changes may lead to greater fulfillment and alignment with your true self.
Through guided exploration and thoughtful reflection, you can articulate your values more clearly, making decisions that are more aligned with who you truly are. This process is not about finding perfect words or ideal values but about resonating with the ones that genuinely represent who you are and makes you happy.
Navigating Through Life Staying True to Yourself
In the busyness of our daily lives, urgent deadlines, personal obligations, and the ruthless pursuit of goals, a crucial question often gets lost in the noise—Are you living in alignment with who you are?
Living in alignment means that your actions and lifestyle resonate with the beliefs you truly stand for. It’s about being true to who you are at your essence, not just conforming to what others expects of you.
But how do you know if you're living in alignment with your true self? Let’s find out!
Clarifying Your Core Values:
The first step to living in alignment is clarifying your core values. What values you absolutely must honor to keep you grounded in your sense of self, or part of you dies? Recognizing them is the basis of living a life that is true to you.
Listening to Your Inner Voice:
In a world that’s always shouting, learning to listen to your inner voice can be liberating. Your intuition often knows what is best for you. It's that gut feeling that pushes you towards or away from certain decisions and paths. Practicing mindfulness can help you connect with your inner voice more profoundly.
Aligning Your Actions with Your Values:
Once you’re clear about your values and you’re in sync with your inner voice, the next step is to align your actions with your values. This might mean making significant changes in your life, such as ending toxic relationships or replacing bad habits with ones that support who you are becoming.
Staying True:
Living in alignment is living authentically, in resonance with who you are. This means showing up as your true self in all areas of your life, not just where it’s convenient. It’s about being honest with yourself and others about your thoughts, feelings, and desires. And behave accordingly. Authenticity is the key to deep, meaningful connections and a fulfilling life.
Re-Adjusting As You Grow:
Values are not a set in stone one-time achievement. It’s a dynamic process and it evolves as you grow. Values, desires, and goals might shift. Who you were yesterday is not who you are today and who you will become tomorrow is not who you are now.
Here are a few examples of core values and priorities changes: a person might initially value career success above all else but, over time, shift to value work-life balance more. Someone might value independency but come to appreciate support system and collaboration more. A person might shift from materialism to minimalism, and so forth.
Regularly reflecting on whether your life is in alignment with who you are becoming is crucial. This means being open to change and making adjustments as necessary.
The Elephant In The Room:
Living in alignment with who you are is not without its challenges. It takes courage to live up against people’s expectations and social pressure - to not feel the need to change your beliefs, perceptions or actions, to match with those around you because you want to belong. There may be misinterpretation, judgments, and refusal to accept from others.
Choosing to live in your comfort zone instead can be comfortable, but it’ll most probably leave you feeling unfulfilled.
On the other hand, the sense of purpose, freedom and fulfillment that comes from living in alignment with your true self is a price worth paying for.
Immeasurable Rewards
I invite you to dive in a journey of introspection, intention and transformation where increased happiness, reduced anxiety and stress, improved relationships, higher resilience, enhanced decision-making, personal growth, sense of purpose, grounding, increased confidence, better physical-mental- emotional-spiritual health and inner peace are amongst many others benefits for living in alignment with your core values.
Remember, this is about making conscious choices that resonate and support your deepest truths. And on this journey, you’ll discover that aligning your life with who you truly are is the most rewarding path you can ever take.