What Are Your Core Values?
What Gets You Up in the Morning?
I wonder how many of you could rattle off your top five, or even top three, core values.
Why is this important? There are two main reasons why it’s essential to know your core values:
1. Our core values are at the heart of what intrinsically motivates us. They get us moving every day and drive our sense of purpose. If we don’t know what we’re striving for, life becomes monotonous and unfulfilling.
2. If we’re not clear on our core values, then we may be chasing after dreams and goals that aren’t in alignment with what actually matters most to us. It’s not uncommon to never hit those goals. Or, if we do, we may feel absent the joy and fulfillment that would normally follow.
While our fundamental beliefs about why we’re alive and the principles of how we’d ideally like to show up in life may not change with time, our core values will. Our priorities will shift as circumstances change and the seasons of life unfold; that’s a guarantee.
It’s often life’s transition points that pose the biggest obstacles for hanging onto our sense of purpose. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a change of course we’re anticipating or a behemoth rogue wave smacking down on us.
These could be things like getting married, starting a family, and having kids for the first time. Or, kids going off to college and becoming empty nesters, being laid off, reaching retirement age, or a life-threatening medical diagnosis or sudden death of a loved one.
Updating our core values list every year is one way we can ensure we’re in touch with what’s driving our motivation, energy, and deserving of our time and attention. By staying current on these internal forces, we give ourselves the ability to navigate our days, weeks, and months with intention.
It’s this type of hyper-awareness that allows you to live in integrity with your beliefs, principles, and goals. It places you in the wheelhouse allowing you to dial in the coordinates of your personal voyage. Living into your future rather than reacting to everything happening around you is a much more powerful way to live. This is the path to living in alignment with yourself; your true authenticity.
I’d like to invite you to visit www.lifemappinginstitute.com/resources to download the core values exercise and worksheets. Make this part of your yearly self-reflection when you’re choosing a path for the year ahead. Share this exercise with those closest to you so you can support them in pursuing what matters most to them, as well.
Dana
Core Values Exercise
When you know what your core values are, it's much easier to have clarity around your purpose and goals. Research suggests we're more apt to reach our goals if they're supported by one or more of our core values.