With the holidays upon us, it’s a great time to think about our most important values and how they shape our lives.
How Personal Values Shape Us
Values are our guiding principles in life. They determine the choices we make and the story we tell if our life is turning out the way we want it to.
We are at the happiest when our core values are in sync with what we do and the way we behave. But the opposite is also true.
Let me illustrate what I mean with an example.
Imagine one of your core values is improvement and learning. But your manager’s core value is stability.
You might want to change positions and learn new skills, but your manager, driven by her core value of stability, insists you stay at the current position because you are good at it.
This mismatch in our values with the values of our friends, managers, partners and companies can make us truly unhappy.
This is why making a conscious effort to identify your core values and communicate them with self-confidence is so important.
Core Values in Your Own Business
If you are running your own online business, your personal values are also your business values. After all, you want to create or work on a business you love!
In like manner, you want to attract customers and partners that share your values, because then your message will be valuable to them.
Make sure your mission, vision, brand and designs clearly communicate your company’s core values. In this way, your services and products will speak directly to the hearts of your customers.
Here is a fun and helpful exercise to get you more aware of how companies communicate their values.
It goes like this:
Find a couple of products or brands that you appreciate and love using. Then ask yourself what is the feeling that they give you? Which values do they stand for? What does their brand logo or motto represent?
Trek Bikes is a brand that speaks to me because it talks about adventure, exploration and active life. Those are all 3 core values of mine in one product.
When I browse their catalogue I start feeling alive and inspired. I can plan trips that give me a sense of timelessness, freedom and joy.
Their motto is “One customer at a time because that’s how we roll.” This gives me an idea that this company values quality above quantity. Trek Bikes is more concerned about how great their products and services are than about how much money they make.
I would love to hear your examples of brands and how they make you feel! You can share them here in the comments or in our online business community on Facebook.
Do you know what your core values are?
Determine Your Core Values
You can determine your core values by analysing the moments you have been the happiest in life and work, the people you admire, and the goals you want to achieve. Here is a list that can get you started …
- Start by circling the 15 or so values that are most important to you.
- Then from this list circle the top 5 and rank them.
| Accountability Accuracy Achievement Adventurousness Altruism Ambition Assertiveness Balance Being the best Belonging Boldness Calmness Carefulness Challenge Cheerfulness Clear-mindedness Commitment Community Compassion Competitiveness Consistency Contentment Continuous Improvement Contribution Control Cooperation Correctness Courtesy Creativity Curiosity Decisiveness Democraticness Dependability Determination Devoutness Diligence Discipline Discretion Diversity Dynamism Economy Effectiveness Efficiency Elegance Empathy Enjoyment Enthusiasm Equality | Excellence Excitement Expertise Exploration Expressiveness Fairness Faith Family-orientedness Fidelity Fitness Fluency Focus Freedom Fun Generosity Goodness Grace Growth Happiness Hard Work Health Helping Society Holiness Honesty Honour Humility Independence Ingenuity Inner Harmony Inquisitiveness Insightfulness Intelligence Intellectual Status Intuition Joy Justice Leadership Legacy Love Loyalty Making a difference Mastery Merit Obedience Openness Order Originality Patriotism | Perfection Piety Positivity Practicality Preparedness Professionalism Prudence Quality-orientation Reliability Resourcefulness Restraint Results-oriented Rigour Security Self-actualization Self-control Selflessness Self-reliance Sensitivity Serenity Service Shrewdness Simplicity Soundness Speed Spontaneity Stability Strategic Strength Structure Success Support Teamwork Temperance Thankfulness Thoroughness Thoughtfulness Timeliness Tolerance Traditionalism Trustworthiness Truth-seeking Understanding Uniqueness Unity Usefulness Vision Vitality |
If you need more thinking time then do the why game.
It is our responsibility to find or create an environment that reflects and gives space to the expression of our core values.
Furthermore, you can put your values into action by transforming the nouns into verbs as suggested by the Why Guy Simon Sinek.
Here are my Top 3 personal values that I am conveying in all my work, including the digital business I own Inspiration4life:
- Dare to explore roads less travelled: Adventure, Fun, Excitement, Curiosity, Change, Motion, Courageous
- Create the circumstances where you can be yourself: Autonomy, Freedom, Independence, Broad-minded, Honesty
- Increase impact by improving and learning every day: Ambitious (Achieving significance, live your full potential, having an impact, providing value, success)
Your turn now!
Watch the video for an explanation and take action!
Ultimately, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of investing in your own personal and professional development as often as you can. And it all starts with getting to know yourself and your values better.
Happy Holidays!
Learn more about the opportunities of creating an online income stream. Achieve financial independence and freedom to live life on your own terms!
>> Click here << for a list of books that recently influenced me profoundly and are today part of my body and mind.