What Are Your Core Values?

What has meaning for you? What really inspires you and lifts your heart?

When it comes to values, the thing to consider is whether they are really yours. We can so often mistake our family, religious and social values for those of our own. A friend of mine (a brilliant coach and trainer) Suzanne Samson, calls our values, 'the fingerprint of the soul'. They are the principles that we find uniquely important and inspiring.

There are three main ways we find out what our values are. One is when they are violated. Our physical and emotional bodies have a wonderful built-in mechanism that can tell us what is truly a part of us in the deepest sense by how something feels to us. When we feel uncomfortable or upset, we can usually bet that a value has been violated.

The second way we understand our values is when they are fulfilled somehow. We get a sense that something important has occurred and it feels good.

The third way to know our selves in this way is through self- examination. This is the surest way to separate our own values out from others'.

So let's just quickly do that. Take a moment to think about one of the goals you are pursuing now in your life. Imagine being in the future with this having been achieved. Imagine how it feels, looks, sounds, and then ask yourself, "What do I value about this goal?" The answer might be "excitement", "challenge", "abundance", "enlightenment" or "fun". Whatever it is, write it down in one word if you can. Choose the first thing that comes in. You can always change the word later. The feeling of it is the most important thing at this point.

Then ask yourself, "What does......... (this value) allow me to have, be, or do that is even more important to me?" The answer will likely be another, much deeper value. Write it down.

Then ask that same question about this value. You can keep going until you feel you have reached a value that is really at your core...

The exciting thing is that once we become familiar with our deeper values, we can understand more what our mission in life is. A mission is a sense of purpose that unifies our beliefs, values, interests, desires and actions and our sense of who we are. Mission-based goals are exciting, inspired and fun. It is where we really get to live out our life's passion.

Now that's something I value!

© 2007 Justina Vail Evans. All rights reserved.