What Are Your Values?

Who are you and what is most important to you? We each have values that define the best of who we are. When we are clear about our values, we can honour them in our lives and express them in ways that give us joy and contribute to humankind. Christopher Columbus valued adventure, Michelangelo, whose amazing David is pictured at right, valued beauty and Bill Gates values both creativity and contribution.

Since I have become more conscious about including my values in my life, I’ve felt more peaceful and alive. It’s a work in progress to become continually more aligned with my values and the effort is always worth it.

Here are some steps you can take to define your values:

1. Find a list of values. If you don’t have one, do an internet search. The list is just to tweak your memory -- in your heart, you already know your values.
2. Go through the list using your gut reactions to identify a short list of no more than eight.
3. Narrow down the list, if necessary, by combining closely-related values like integrity and truth.
4. Define what each value means to you. This is your personal definition, not what you find in the dictionary.
5. Consider why the value is important to you.
6. Think about how you will express each value and identify some actions you can take. For example, I can express my value of adventure by experiencing new activities, places and things. Actions I could take are trying an ethnic restaurant or going sailing.

When we live by expressing our most important values, we feel centred, joyful and on-purpose. Isn’t that worth taking some time to define?