Identifying Your Values

Live your life by your values to live a life you value ☀️

We all possess a unique set of values. You may not be aware of what your values are. Or, you may know your values but you feel unsure how you can live in alignment with them. Identifying or acknowledging your values may be something you haven’t given much attention to previously. There is no time like the present for you to start focusing on yourself and begin to make choices that mean you can live your life the way you want to. Identifying your values and learning how to honour and respect them in your everyday life can help you to achieve this ❇️.

👉 What are Values?

🔶 Values are things that you feel are truly important. Everybody places different levels of importance on different values and that is perfectly ok. 🔶 Your values can change over time as you change as a person. It’s important to regularly check in with yourself so you can identify if there are any changes to your values. For example, you may value being social in your twenties and going to lots of parties. Still, in your thirties, you might value being healthy so you reduce the nights you stay up late partying so you can get up earlier in the morning to exercise. This change in behaviour reflects the change in your values. 🔶 Identifying your values can be quite challenging as it requires you to look inwards, and be completely honest with yourself. Only you know what you truly value. 🔶 The initial difficulty you might face trying to identify your values is well worth it. When you are aware of your values and you acknowledge them, you are able to live your life in alignment with them. Your values can act as a guiding compass and help you live your life in a way you value, increasing your feelings of inner peace.

👉 The Benefits of Identifying Your Values ✨

✅ You can face lots of uncertainty throughout your life. You may be unsure of what you should prioritise or what your goals in life are. When you’re faced with this uncertainty you can think about your core values and consider what action/behaviour would align with these. This can help to make you feel confident that you are making the right decision for yourself. ✅ Understanding your values and living in alignment with them could help to reduce anxiety surrounding any decisions, as they can act as your guiding compass. ✅ Knowing your values can help to increase your feelings of self-worth. As you are consciously deciding to live life in a way that you believe to be most important. ✅ Your values can also help to motivate you. ✅ Identifying your values can help you to avoid making choices and decisions that contrast them. Making decisions that contrast your values can leave you feeling negative emotions such as guilt, worry, and sadness.

👉 Values Example: John prioritised and focused all his energy on his career. All of the goals he set for himself were career-focused and he used his free time in ways that would advance his status within his field. John’s parents had told him throughout his younger years how important it is to have a good job because that is something they value. However, John often felt anxious and depressed. He was doing great at work and was achieving everything he set his mind to, so he was confused as to why he was experiencing these negative emotions. John wasn’t aware of his values and he was living his life in alignment with his parent's values. John’s core value was spending time with his family but he hadn’t identified this so was unable to acknowledge it and make choices in his life that reflected this value. Whereas Mary regularly checks in with herself and takes the time to identify her values and can then recognise if any changes need acknowledging. This led to Mary realising she highly values spending time with her family. So when she was in a stable financial position like John, Mary chose not to continue prioritising her time trying to progress within her career. She instead chose to refocus her energy on spending time with her nephews and nieces. This led to Mary feeling more fulfilled with her life. She felt satisfied that she was living life how she wanted to and making her life fit with her values. Mary felt confident in her decision to reprioritise her energy and focus away from work as she was using her values as her guide.

✍️ Identifying Your Values Exercise:

Only you know what you truly value in life. However, identifying these values can be difficult. You might feel quite unsure and may feel the values other people have are values you should have too. You need to take some time to really work out what your values are. This exercise might help you begin to identify your values.

🔵 Choose a day this week to dedicate time where you can begin to really focus on identifying your values. 🔵 On this day, from the moment you wake up, take time to think about your actions and what value might have led to you behaving in this way. For example, you might wake up twenty minutes earlier than you need to for work to give yourself time to exercise. Why did you do this? This could be because you value being fit, so the action of exercising reflects this. Another example could be when you get to work ten minutes early. Why did you decide to do this? Maybe you value being punctual, so the action of arriving early reflects this. 🔵 Once you identify the values behind your actions write each one down. 🔵 At the end of the day you will have a list of different values you can work through, some might be repeated and this could suggest you value that value more highly. 🔵 Work through your list and try and prioritise them in order. 🔵 You can repeat this exercise over a few days and identify if there is a common theme among the values that are emerging.

🤗 Remember to be gentle with yourself. These things can take time and that's ok. Happio is here to help offer your support and guidance! 🤗