Improve Your Life By Identifying Your Core Values

Do you know what your core values in life are?  Do you live by those values?  Are your decisions guided by those values?  Do your relationships reflect those values?

Core values help us to know what is important in life, what drives us.  If our actions do not line up with our value system, we can experience stress, lack of focus, confusion, and miss out on our purpose in life. 

Have you identified your top core values?  You can't live by your core values if you have not identified them.  Start by identifying your top 10 values.  Write that list down, then set it aside for a couple days.  Pay close attention over a week time frame as to what really is important to you.  Revisit your list and see if the top 10 values you chose are truly your how you live your life.  If your list needs a realignment, then make it.  Once you do that, then narrow it down to your top 5.  These should be the things that shape your decisions and how you live your life.  

One question you can ask yourself to focus on if you are aligned with your values is this: Do my actions, my schedule, and where my money is spent reflect the values I say are most important to me?

Here is a list to begin with.  There are many other values that could be added to this, but this is a start:

Appreciation   Accountability   Artistic    Authenticity    Accomplishment   Achievement   Adventure  Belonging   Beauty   Building    Being in Control   Bold    Caution   Career    Changing the World    Compassion   Creativity    Calm   Community   Creation  Competence   Collaboration    Communicating     Competitive   Consistency    Cherish  Cleanliness   Considerate   Confident   Challenge  Cheerful   Clear-minded    Diversity    Diligence    Dedication    Devotion   Determined   Dynamic   Excitement   Education   Efficiency    Encouragement     Excellence   Ethical   Enjoyment  Enthusiasm  Explore  Expertise    Family      Faithfulness   Fun    Freedom    Forgiveness      Faith    Financial    Forward Thinking     Frugal       Fulfillment      Fair    Fitness   Flexible   Gentleness   Gain   Giving   Genuineness    Goodness   Growth    God   Generous   Gracious   Honesty    Hard Working    Humility     Humor    Health   Happy    Help     Integrity    Impact Others   Influence   Inspiring   Independent   Intelligence   Joy   Kindness   Love     Loyal    Love of Learning   Life   Leadership   Marriage      Mentoring    Make a Difference  Nurturing      Obedience     Orderliness     Optimistic   Patience    Peace   Perfection    Performance-Driven    Persistence   Power     Physical     Productive    Purity   Passionate     Positive    Quality   Quiet    Respect    Risk Taking       Relationships    Recognition   Relaxation   Respect for Others     Resourceful   Security      Self-esteem      Self-expression   Sensitivity    Servanthood     Service     Silence   Sincere    Solitude     Self-control   Spiritual    Stability     Success    Safety    Serenity  Simplicity  Spontaneous   Structure   Support     Strength   Temperance         Tolerance     Tranquility   Trust     Truth      Trustworthy   Timely     Thoughtful    Teamwork    Uniqueness    Useful     Vitality    Vision  Winning     Worship      Wisdom 

Ask this as you work to narrow the list to five....do I appreciate this value?  Does this value truly reflect my character?  Do I enjoy this more than other things?  

Once you identify your top 5 values, what are some key action steps you can take to make very clear boundaries around your values?   How will those boundaries impact the life you live and how you treat others?