Discovering Your Values in Life
Importance of Values in Everyday Life
We previously defined values in life as follows:
Values: A group of moral and ethical concepts that steer our behavior and our choices. How?
The concept of values is quite broad, and there exists many schools of thought. I in this article I will, nevertheless, try do my best in order to give you a brief summary. I will also try to help you discover and see more clearly your own values, in a simple way. Knowing your values adds yet another piece to the puzzle of YOU. In other words, thinking about your values is an additional tool in helping better to understand yourself. And as I always like to add, this will also benefit your time management.
The better you know your goals and values in life, the better you know yourself. Knowing yourself better translates into a more confident, independent and efficient you.
In everyday life, we all have physical things that we value very highly. It can be a car, a set of photos or a piece of jewelry that you have got from your mother and that has been with the family for ages. Likewise, there exists a special set of highly valued thoughts of life inside our minds too. These immaterial values define how we see and feel about things around us, and they are also very important for us. In fact, they are, in reality, more important than any physical possessions we might have, as they define, and are part of, our core identity. Therefore, they also affect the choices we make and how we feel about them. Our internal values exist and are in place consciously and as most often, unconsciously.
Despite their big meaning for us, it is not usual to stop and think about our values, even if that can benefit you greatly. Therefore, I recommend that you go and get a nice cup of coffee make this exercise too.
Three levels of values
There exists on paradigm that says that values actually exist in three different levels. The levels are:
- Fundamental truths/principles – the moral compass of humanity that almost everyone acknowledges on some level:
- “Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself”
- “Personal responsibility”, etc…
- Internal values
- A person’s own set of values – these may even change during time
- More practical and down to earth
- How we behave
- Can be different from the two above
- The reason is often a persons own internal limiting beliefs, e.g. “People cannot be trusted.
These levels are just good to know. If you find out that you behave regularly against one your core beliefs, then maybe you should do something about it at some point it in the future.
Your Important Values in Life
Now, let’s get into our exercise.
To give you some examples of values that people have, let’s look at the results of a study performed by Professor Shalom Schwartz and his team. It surveyed 25 000 people in 44 countries. Schwartz looked for cross-cultural values, which he then grouped into ten categories:
| GROUP | ASSOCIATED VALUES |
| Power | authority, leadership, dominance |
| Achievement | success, capability, ambition, influence, intelligence, self-respect |
| Hedonism | pleasure, enjoying life |
| Stimulation | daring activities, varied life, exciting life |
| Self-direction | creativity, freedom, independence, curiosity, choosing your own goals |
| Universalism | broadmindedness, wisdom, social justice, equality, a world at peace, a world of beauty, unity with nature, protecting the environment, inner harmony |
| Benevolence | helpfulness, honesty, forgiveness, loyalty, responsibility, friendship |
| Tradition | accepting one’s portion in life, humility, devoutness, respect for tradition, moderation |
| Conformity | self-discipline, obedience |
| Security | cleanliness, family security, national security, stability of social order, reciprocation of favors, health, sense of belonging |
Most likely, you can find at least some of your own values from the list above too. Even so, remember that this is just one way to look at values – there exists others too. And in all cases we all have different weights on the different components.
Next, print a copy of the ready-to-use form I have prepared for you. You will find it here:
Now, fill in your own. Here is an example:
A key value in life for a REAL family man (provided as an example only).
Ready? Good!
Having looked at your values should help you in:
- Making choices, as you know what you really value in life
- Handle setbacks, as you have a bigger picture of what is really important for you
- Help to drop unhealthy habits, as they are often the result of an inner restfulness, due to a sense of “being lost”
Sounds great, doesn’t it! Well, you will see for yourself when you try, won’t you. Enjoy!
Goals in Life. In order to be an efficient time manager, you must know what are your goals in life. Clarify your own life direction using ready forms for defining your goals.
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