Core Values – Where Do Core Values Come From?
Core values drive you determining whether you will find success or failure in life. When you run into a clash among different values, those with the highest priority win out over those that are less important in the situation at hand.
How do you create your core values?
Take a moment to think about what is really important to you… integrity, health, being happy, truth, well being, being supportive, being logical etc
Really take your time and write down your list of what matters to you in your life. Your values help you decide who to date and who to marry, where it is okay to work and where you would really shine at work, what you do for fun, how you practice your spiritual beliefs, etc. Every aspect of your life reflects what you believe to be in your highest interest.
Seriously, take ten minutes to list your top ten values. Then place them in the order that you think goes from most important to least important. Do this now because your results will reveal how and why your life flows or flutters as it does.
Done? Okay, now look at each value one at a time. Make a note next to each describing (very briefly) why you hold that value so close to your heart and feel it necessary that you live in alignment with it.
This step is crucial so do it before reading further.
Now that you now why each value holds the place it does on your list ask yourself if you created that value in your life and gave it a high priority because in the past someone acted in a way contrary to your value leaving you feeling bad or hurt.
What do I mean? For most of my life I placed honesty as my top value. When I stopped to understand why honesty was so very important to me (I mean I need to live in honesty AND I only tolerate others in my world who also live in honesty) I discovered I never wanted to be lied to or deceived again.
You see, deception had been a common theme in my life as a child and also as an adult. Realizing that reality made me stride to live as an up-front honest person. That same value played a crucial role in my choice of partners, friends and colleagues.
The bottom line is I wanted to avoid and move away from dishonest people. By doing so I figured I could avoid a lot of potential stress from ever entering my life.
What I found is moving toward I want, rather than away from what I do not want, is far more empowering. I continued to attract dishonest people so long as I tried to avoid them!
Consequently I re-examined all my priority core values for whether I wanted them in my life or wanted to avoid having them in my life. My result? I created a new list of core values and new priorities for those that remained on my list.
