Do you need to re-evaluate?

Anyone who knows me, knows how important the topic of “personal values” is to me. At the time in my life where I felt I’d lost my anchor and had lost my sense of identity (that was if I’d ever really had it in the first place). The exercise that helped me the most was the exercise to identify just what my personal core values were.

Your core values (literally the things in life you value the most) are running the show for you, whether you are aware of them or not. You filter everything in your life through these values and therefore they are what determine if you are going to be happy and in alignment in your job, your relationships, your decisions and so much more.

At the time I first did this exercise I discovered that I had been living out of alignment with my values for quite some time. I was shocked at how many parts of my life were clashing with my values system and causing me mental turmoil is so many areas. My career especially.

After identifying my top 10 values I realised I had the key to find alignment and enjoyment in whatever I wanted in life. I just had to find how to link what I wanted to what my values were and things would just work.

For example, some of my highest held personal values were “Joy”, “Self-Esteem”, “contentment”. I saw that if I could find these things in whatever I was doing I’d simply want to keep doing it forever.

I was, at the time, 4 stone overweight and very inactive. So I went in search of joy in exercise … it seemed unlikely as I’d never been able to stick to any sort of exercise, but it turned out that when I tried a few different things, I found a type of exercise I found accessible at first, with great music, that boosted my self esteem and made me feel contented after a work out, I knew this was something I would continue to do daily (and I have).

So I knew my values were my key to all future success. Personal and professional.

Values, though pretty stable, do change over longer periods of time. If you think about what you valued at 20 vs what you value at 30 and 40, as the priorities in your life change values do shift. I decided to re-do my values after 5 years of first identifying mine.

And the results are in….

There were some consistent values as expected… Joy and self esteem were still up there but two new values really stood out.

Stability and Structure!!

I would NEVER have added these to my list 5/6 years ago because to be quite honest, I didn’t have them as part of my life. My life was chaotic and unstructured by my design, and the price I paid for that was with my mental health (I was diagnosed with bipolar) and my physical well-being. Since having spend the last 6-7 years working hard on those aspects of my life I’ve learnt the true value of structure and stability and they are themes in all areas of my life. With my mental health and physical health, I know I need a structured stable sleep routine with daily exercise. With work I am super passionate about bringing in processes and structure to help teams work more efficiently…

Re-doing this exercise has given me the opportunity to celebrate how far I’ve come, and has shown me that I’m constantly evolving and growing, helped by this clearer understanding of how I filter the world.

Is it time for you to check in and re-evaluate?

I offer coaching on this topic, it’s my speciality and a key topic in the book I’m working on! Dm me if you would be interested in looking in to identifying your core values?