Determine Your Core Values
Everyday I come across people who are running around in a state of frenzy doing things because they "have" to rather than because they really want to.
I understand their struggle, I used to be one of those people not too long ago.
That all changed once I became question-oriented, taking the time to sit down and ask myself deep and meaningful questions.
My Core Values:
One of the questions I asked myself was "what are my core values in life? " This question led me to asking myself another question, "At the end of the day, what really matters to me? If I were on my death bed and someone were to ask me what I really cared about in life, how would I respond?"
Then the answers started to flood in. There are five things in particular that matter most to me in life:
- My Freedom
- Contribution
- Learning, Growth, and Adventure
- Relationships
- My Health, Vitality, Fitness.
Of course, all the above terms needed to be defined a little more. By freedom, I refer to the freedom to only do things in life because I want to, not because I "have to". I value the freedom to express myself in whatever manner I choose.
For contribution, I mean serving other people by putting them in a better position then before I met them. I refer to contribution as the ability to leverage my unique perspective and skills to help as many people as I can and provide value for their lives.
By learning and growth, I refer to expanding my horizons, and continuously keeping my mind open to grow and evolve into a better person.
Relationships: Sharing the ups and downs in life with others. Always having people in my life that I can turn to, be it my family, friends, or significant other.
Health: Having the ability to enjoy my body as well as the energy/vitality to do whatever I want to do in life.
The Importance of Defining Your Core Values
If you have yet to define your core values in life, you are probably some one who feels somewhat lost or confused. You may get distracted easily, and not really have a clear mission or purpose in your life. It may almost seem like you are living in a dream-like state, where time keeps passing on but no matter what you do, you feel like you are never making any progress. You may even lack confidence or suffer from a low self-esteem.
All these symptoms could be a result of not consciously identifying what really matters to you in life, and living a life out of alignment with that which you really value on a deeper level.
Determine Your Core Values:
The only way to really determine your core values is to sit down and ask yourself deep and meaningful questions. Here are a couple questions to start you off:
What really matters to me?
If I were on my deathbed and someone were to ask me what I really valued most about life, how would I respond?
Once answers start coming in from these questions, you may want to define and refine your answers even more. For example, when I said I valued freedom, I had to dig a little deeper to find out what that meant to me exactly. For me, freedom means doing what I want to do in life, rather than what others feel I should be doing. Then I would have to define what it is I want to be doing in my life. Then I'd have to ask myself why I want to be doing those things...and so on and so forth.
Continue with the self inquiry and you will have developed your core values in no time. You may only have a couple things that you really care about, or 20 things. Every person is different.
Here's a video of me discussing my core values. Good luck with your journey ;)