How to Identify and Live Your Values for Personal and Professional Well-Being
One reason you might be burning the candle at both ends is because you aren’t clear on your values.
You might think you are, but not really. At least not to the degree that you can put them definitively in practice. It’s one thing to say, “oh easy, X,Y, and Z, are important to me.” And it’s another thing to prioritize those things in daily life above others.
For example, you might say that your health is a priority. And yet, work constantly “gets in the way” of working out or your busy days make it “impossible” to get more than 5 hours of sleep. So how can you can truly clear on what your values are AND start living a more value-centric (aka authentic) life?
Get Onboard
If you’re a bit dubious about the importance of values, here’s why they matter.
Core values are the things that are most important to you in life. They are the guiding principles that help you make decisions, set goals, and live authentically. An authentic life is one that aligns with your purpose and your strengths, as much as your core values. They are interconnected. When you live authentically, you will likely find that you wake up with more energy, more purpose, and have greater resilience in times of change or stress.
Values can help you:
Make optimal decisions
Build stronger relationships
Improve confidence and peace of mind
Decrease risk of burnout and bore-out
As a result you will likely experience improved physical, mental, and emotional health, and improved job and life satisfaction.
Get Clear
There are several approaches to discovering your values. You can use an online tool like this one or this one to help you rank possible values and identify your core values. You can think back to your most meaningful experiences or the times when you felt you were at your peak and consider the values that you were tapping into during that time.
You could also think of five to six people you admire or love and reflect on why you chose them. What are the values they represent? Likely those indicate your own core values.
There are several other assessments and exercises. Some will say you need to identify 5 values, others (like that second exercise I linked to) will list your top 14 in order. The most important thing is to get crystal clear on what you value most. Not what you think you should value, or what those around you value, or that you want to value. What you value right now.
Get Over It
Get over it meaning, get over the fear of setting and enforcing boundaries. The reason people don’t live according to their values is because they don’t know what they or because they aren’t setting boundaries that allow them to live according to those values. Now, we don’t have full autonomy over our lives. So there’s a give and take here. But we can all do a little (or a lot) better at this.
For guidance on all things boundaries, click here.
Get Consistent
Review your values regularly so they stay front of mind. I recommend once a week, say a Sunday, sit down and review the week that just past and look ahead at the week to come. What worked? What do you want to do better? How did you live according to your values? How did you not? What tweaks can you make? Who can you reach out to support you in those tweaks?
Values will likely shift with time and life changes. That’s OK. That’s also why the weekly review is helpful.
Living in alignment with your values is one of the best things you can do for your personal and professional well-being. When you know what is important to you and you live your life in a way that is consistent with your values, you will start living a life you don’t want to escape from.