What Are Your Core Values?

 What are your core values?

Core noun. 
the central or most important part of something in particular.

Values noun. 
a person’s principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgment of what is important in life.

Your core values are like your GPS for your destination. They guide and lead you into every decision you make. It’s what and how you define the way you live your life and how you run your business. It’s what you believe in.
 

How to define your Core Values

It's important to distinguish between core values and things that we value. For example, we might value our homes, but a house is not a value. A value we might associate with a home could be something like stability or safety.
 

Here are some questions to help you find your core values:

1. What have been your top three greatest accomplishments? Think of the three themes you can identify.

2. What have been your three greatest failures? Again, think of the three themes you can identify.

3. Based on the commonalities (questions 1 & 2), what are three pieces of advice you would give yourself?

4. Reduce those sentences into words. For example, if your advice is “Take more time for myself to appreciate the small things in life,” reduce that down to "Take more self-loving actions", or even words such as self-loving, loving or peace.

5. Test the value. See if this value helps you more than it hurts you. For example, you might think Community sounds good until you realize that you shield yourself from everyone when things go wrong. I’d recommend doing this exercise with someone you trust so that you can get honest feedback. Also, over time your values may adjust and develop, just like you do.
 

Here’s a list of core values:

Accomplishment

Achieving

Action-Oriented

Belief

Beneficent

Benevolent

Candid

Caring

Clean

Daring

Dedicated

Dependable

Determined

Enthusiastic

Ethical

Faithful

Fearless

Fresh

Fun

Genuine

Good

Gracious/Grateful

Helpful

Honesty

Honorable

Imagination

Integrity

Intelligence

Joyful

Kindness

Legacy

Love

Loyal

Memorable

Neat

Noble

Obedience

Objective

Openness

Opportunity

Original

Performance

Persistent

Personable

Resourceful

Strength

Stability

Truth

Unity

Valiant

Vigorous

Wisdom

MAHATMA GANDHI SAID: "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”