Get Serious About Your Core Values

Living a complete life includes living connected to what you value. Right now is the time to decide for yourself that you won’t waste another minute not living connected to your values.

By the end of this blog post and with my FREE e-book Completely You, you should be able to

• Know what core values are and why they are important to have
• Understand what a worldview is and how it impacts who you are
• Start understanding your worldview and determine your core values
• Establish boundaries that help you consistently live as your truest self
• Recognize when you’re not aligned with your values and worldview and reconnect

Ready to start the hard but life changing work of living a complete life? Knowing your values is an integral part and it starts now.

Values defined

There are two aspects of the term “value” that I want you to understand in this post: value denotes worth and importance.

Worth it

Let’s brush up on our French, shall we? The word “value” comes from the Old French term valoir, which means “be worth”¹.

Think about your life for a second. Your day-to-day activities and relationships. What you do to seek out happiness and get revitalized. Those things are so worth it to you that you spend your money on them. You give of your energy towards them. Your efforts go towards those things and your time is divided accordingly amongst them.

Why is that?

It’s because you see those things as valuable. They have worth regarding your money, time, effort, and energy.

Important in life

Until two years ago, I never really thought about what I valued. I lived my life and whether how I lived lined up with my core values didn’t matter too much.

Then I became a mother and the idea of instilling values into my son was a regular thought. And when I started unpacking the word “value”, my desire to pass on my values made sense. By teaching my son what I valued, he would start to understand what was important in life.

This is due to the fact a person’s values capture what they deem important. And what that person values tells the people around them what they think is vital to living a free and full life.

Now this is how importance links to worth: when a person lives according to their core values, they consistently spend their time, money, efforts, and energy on what is important to them. If there’s no worth attached to a core value, it likely isn’t something a person truly finds essential for their life.

Not a goal

With each new year, people come up with new year’s resolutions. Goals are great to have (although I have issues with the concept of new year’s resolutions and will get into that in a future post) but don’t confuse your goals with your core values.

A value is not a task that can be checked off a list; it is a constant posturing of your life. You live your values day in and day out, even after a goal is achieved. A goal is a means you use to live out your values. It’s a reflection of what you treasure and how you will go about pursuing that treasure.

Values matter

Values are where a person’s heart is. One’s heart is centered around each of their core values, which means values play a big role in making someone who they are.

Inner person

You might be wondering what I mean by “heart”. Your heart is your “inner person”. It is the affective core of your being.

This inner person consists of your thoughts, feelings, passions, desires, actions, behaviours, and endeavours. Your inner person reinforces who you really are and from it your life flows. Hopefully, it’s centered around your values and worldview.

The impact

One reason why knowing your core values is so important is those values impact everything about your inner person. Through your heart, your values impact all your relationships and the legacy you build. They influence the life roles you pursue, what you spend your time doing, why you behave the way you do, and the reason you think the way you think.

Your life is an effect of your values and worldview on your inner person.

So, if your inner person is influenced, guided, and shaped by your values, then what you value matters. Even more importantly, what your values are based on is key. The foundation of your values – your worldview – will influence, guide, and shape you.

Ready to discover your core values this year and start living that complete life you’ve been looking for? Check out my FREE e-book Completely You (newly updated), where you’ll go through insightful questions that help you determine what you value and consistently live a life connected to your core values.

Foundational things

Whether you know it or not, you have a worldview – a foundation – for your values, your morals, what you treasure most in your life. Do you know what worldview you are using to base your life on and deem things as important?

This is a question you need to have an answer for to get things right this year and the rest of your life.

Renovation time

Think about a house. The foundation of a house dictates the way the house is built and the structural integrity of the home. A bad foundation can cause the house to shift in a way it shouldn’t or eventually lead to the whole house caving in. I don’t know about you, but I prefer living in a house built on a firm foundation.

It is critical you choose wisely what your worldview is, what the foundation for every one of your values is built upon. The reason being the foundation you use will dictate how you build your life, just like a house’s foundation determines how it’s built. Your values impact your heart, which is the affective part of you. Meaning your worldview will alter every one of your thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviours, passions, etc.

Be honest with yourself. If you know the foundation of your inner person is broken, then it’ll take more than practicing mindfulness, exercising regularly, or a new job to live that complete life you desire. You need a whole mindset change. An entire reset of what informs your decisions. You’ll require a total renovation of who you are from the ground up.

Right now you might be realizing you need a major change in how you view the world. And that’s okay. You are wise for recognizing if you want a significant change in your life you’ll need to take some significant steps. In my e-book Completely You, you’ll find key questions to ask yourself to help you better understand and (if necessary) change your worldview.

Reconnect the inner person

I really enjoy house renovation shows. One thing I’ve noticed that really makes a home look good is when the interior design all goes together. Putting traditional furniture in a modern designed home doesn’t work. Designing a mid-century modern home and filling it with French country items doesn’t make sense. The whole inside of the house feels off even if the foundation is solid.

If you know what your foundation is and know it’s a good one, but your life still doesn’t feel complete, it might be due to your values and inner person not matching up.

The consequences of a lack of connection between your values and inner person are real. You’ll become burnt out doing things that aren’t connected to your values (see my post on burnout). Self-doubt and low self-esteem can set in due to not being certain of who you are or what you stand for. Negative life habits like excessive alcohol drinking, poor eating choices, and unhealthy relationships become the norm as a result of inconsistently guarding the connection between your heart and what you treasure.

If the connection is lacking, it’s time to reconnect your inner person. Sit down and figure out what you truly value. Then begin aligning your thoughts, feelings, behaviours, passions, and efforts accordingly. (My Self-Check Questionnaire works well for this, found alone in my resource library and included in the Completely You e-book.)

Get serious

Now that you know what core values are, why they’re important, and how they’re impacted by the foundation you choose for your life, it’s time to get into the business of figuring what your core values are.

How do you do that?

Remember, your values are what your thoughts, passions, feelings, actions, purpose, etc. are centered around. If you spend time reflecting on these affective parts of your inner person, you will suss out what you treasure most in your life. In my FREE e-book Completely You (newly updated), you’ll find pages of insightful questions that will help you start to unpack what your worldview is, clearly figure out what your core values are, and establish healthy boundaries – keys to living a full and free life.

What about consistently staying connected to your values? How will you do that?

Well, if you regularly reflect on your behaviours, passions, purpose, etc., you’ll be able to recognize when your inner person is out of sync with your values and quickly reconfigure your life. At the end of the e-book is the “Self-Check Questionnaire” to help with this analysis and reconfiguration.

So if you’re ready, it’s time to get serious and start the process of living your complete life.

Did you like this post? If yes, please share it with your friends. And I’d love to know what some of your core values are. Comment below!