If you are employed in a company of any size at all, you probably are familiar with the idea of corporate values. Most companies have a list of corporate values and some of these companies actually live them. What about you? If someone were to ask you what your top 5 personal values are, could you name them? Undoubtedly, your life reflects at least some of the traits and behaviors that are important to you. If you cannot name these values with confidence, then you may be missing out on a deeper clarity of purpose and a more profound impact in the world.
Why we do what we do.
We all have reasons for our behavior. Sometime the reasons may be less than altruistic. Sometimes the reason may be no reason at all. Sometimes these reasons come from a deep, powerful place within you – the place of strongly held values that can define what you do and say. These values can be so strongly held that you feel physically uncomfortable when you do something that does not align with them. This phenomenon of having a negative physical response to action that does not align with values is often the way we get really clear on what is important to us.
Why should I define my personal values?
If you take the time to explore, identify and fully define your values, you can turn to them to inform the hard decisions, to support the difficult conversations, to illuminate the best career choices, and to guide your personal life. As you can see, values can be quite powerful.
How you can begin to clarify your personal values.
If you want more focus and cohesion in your life, try identifying your core values with this simple (and fun) process:
- Create a list of the happiest, most joyful or fulfilling, moments throughout your life. Then create a list of the lowest moments of your life; the times when you found yourself despondent, without hope or confused. Neither of these lists has to be exhaustive. It’s likely that the first stories that come to mind are the most powerful and impactful.
- Once you’ve completed both lists and taken some time to think about the impact they made on you, identify the most meaningful in each list, perhaps 3 from the positive moments and 2 from the unhappy moments.
- Consider what made the positive moments so amazing and, alternatively, what caused the low moments to be so low. Write down what comes up from this evaluation. Words from both lists could represent values for you. They delight you when used for good. They anger you when they are breached.
- You could stop here with your basic list, but if you want to be super clear on how your values will show up, do the following:
- Define each value from your own experience or create a story that illustrates the value.
- Identify key behaviors that communicate each value.
- Clarify the consequences for NOT living each value.
- Just as companies do, to provide some inspiration, you may want to create a visual reminder of your values and their associated behaviors. This could take shape as a collage of images, a word cloud or Post-its on your refrigerator or bulletin board.
- Voila! You now have a more defined picture of how you want to live, who you want to be and what your impact will be.
Finally, if you need more inspiration for taking the time out to get clear on your values, consider this great quote from Brian Tracy:
Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals and values are in balance.
Want more? Check out these additional resources for identifying personal values. They are some of my favorites.
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_85.htm (a values identification process and list of personal values)
http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/define-your-personal-core-values-5-steps.html (a blog on how to determine and test out your personal values)
http://www.herbstevenson.com/articles/core-values-assessment.php (includes an assessment that rates both the importance and consistency of behavior for each listed value)
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