Four Revealing Steps to Creating Your Personal Core Values

 

Every single person has a set of values that they adhere to whether they realize it or not.

The problem is most people cannot define their values let alone have values that line up with what is truly important to them. Is that statement true of you?

 

What is a value?

A set of pre-decided standards that are important to us and ultimately guide our behavior.

Life isn’t always black and white. Values are like a compass that point us to our true north especially in the gray areas of life.

When hit with challenging times, we need to rely heavily on these values to keep us strong and holding on to what is truly important to us.

“Values should determine your priorities, and deep down, they’re probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to.” (Mind Tools article – What Are Your Values?)

For example, if you value family and work 60-70 hours of week, you may have inner conflict because your behavior does not reflect your value.

Determining your values is a very personal process. What resonates with you will be different for me.

Here are four revealing steps to help you determine your core values:

 

Step 1 – CONSIDER

If you do this step alone, you’re ahead of so many people because most have never stopped and considered what are their own values. But don’t stop here.

Simply do a Google search for “personal values list”. Here is one link to get you started: www.JamesCleam.com/core-values

Look through this and other lists and just begin writing down words that resonate with you. This stage is simply revealing options for you to consider before you begin to narrow the list down in other steps.

Another angle is answering the following questions:

• What makes you the happiest?
• What bothers you when you do certain things that seem important to you?
• What makes you proud?
• When do you feel your life is the most aligned?
• When do you feel “off” in your life?
• How do you define success?
• What are my moral absolutes?
• When do I feel my absolute best about myself?

Note: For an additional resources, Inc.com offers some additional core value questions found here.

The ultimate goal of this step is to go from “I value anything and everything” to considering what is really important to you.

 

Step 2 – CHOOSE

Once you have your list of possibilities, you must narrow down the list. You may have circled or written down 20 or more words. Good for you. No worries.

But now the process is working that large number down to just a handful. Try to get the number down to ten.

James Clear said, “If everything is a core value, then nothing is really a priority.” You need to choose a certain number to own at a deep level.

Once you have your ten, let’s concentrate on five values right now (you can go down to as little as three or as many as seven but start at a total of five).

These are the words that have the deepest meaning to you and resonate at the deepest level.

Those five will become your core values. You may have others on the list that are important but choosing only five will make them core to you.

 

Step 3 – CONFIRM

Now that you have your main five core values, do they truly reflect what is important to you?

Are they YOUR values or what you feel is expected of you? Your core values are YOUR core values and must be yours in order to truly own them.

Another key question asked by Dr. Nick Howard, is “do they bring the best out of you?” I love that question because it forces you to confirm if the value ultimately motivates you to become the person you long to be.

Confirm these five core values truly resonate with you at the deepest level. Have a peace that these words have meaning and value to you and will cause you to action.

 

Step 4 – COMMIT

It’s one thing to define them but a completely different thing to own and live by them.

Part of the commitment process is reviewing your values on a consistent basis. I put my core values in my Vision Work, an exhaustive description of who and what I want to become three years from right now. I consistently review my Vision Work which allows me to also review my Personal Core Values.

They need to be more than just words on a piece of paper but have the power to guide our behavior especially when hit with challenging times.

The goal is that if you live out your five core values, you will become the person you long to be and these words will inspire, motivate, and challenge you to become that person.

Note, often, reviewing your values, will bring a level of conviction if you’re not living them out in your daily life. This is good. And this is the point! You want these values to have power to guide your behavior and change your life.

 

One Suggestion…

Once you’ve described your five core values, consider defining them.

Give a one sentence well-crafted description of what that value looks like when lived out on a daily basis.

This will put meaning to your value and hopefully motivate or possibly convict you when reviewing your values.

 

Personal Example…

Here are my five personal core values. They are just that, very personal. My faith is critical to me as you will see in my first two values:

Presence – I seek to practice the presence of God and encounter Him and others daily by being fully present

Honor – I honor God and others with my thoughts, words, and actions

Growth – I am always learning and developing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually

Health – Nutrition, Fitness, and Rest are foundational to my energy and success

Simplicity – I seek the disciplined pursuit of less and strive for the vital few not the trivial many

These are my five core values that I review at least weekly. I hope they serve as an example of what I value and motivate and challenge you to find your own core values.

 

Closing Challenge…

This is not one of these exercises you can do when you have time. A busy, motivated professional never “just has time.”

This must be a scheduled time to define and develop your core values. Use Think Space to work on this very important project.

I challenge you to block out some time in the next week and go through these four steps to creating your Personal Core Values.

It will be a challenging yet such a rewarding process if you seek to develop your personal core values.

I would love to hear of your progress, questions, or final five core values defined. Please reach out to me: Bryan@BryanPaulBuckley.com

 

Closing Question…

Is my life at a place where taking time to define and develop my Personal Core Values is truly important to me?