Personal values are the things that are important to us, the characteristics and behaviours that motivate us and guide our decisions. For example honesty or kindness.Values matter because you’re likely to feel better if you’re living according to your values and to feel worse if you don’t. This applies both to day-to-day decisions and to larger life choices.

Personal Values (And Why They Matter)

Self Improvement

Find out what characteristics or ways of behaving makes you feel good.&nbsp;Answer the following questions:<ul><li>What's important to you in life?</li><li>If you could have any career, without worrying about money or other practical constraints, what would you do?</li><li>When you’re reading news stories, what sort of story or behaviour tends to inspire you?</li><li>What type of story or behaviour makes you angry?</li><li>What do you want to change about the world or about yourself?</li><li>What are you most proud of? </li><li>When were you the happiest?</li></ul>

Define Your Personal Values

Once you’ve come up with a list, it's important to prioritise your values.It can help you get even closer to defining what’s important to you.&nbsp;Prioritising helps you to ensure that you’re spending them on the most important things that'll have the biggest payoff in your life.

Prioritise Your Personal Values

<ul><li>Use Your Values for Goal Setting.&nbsp;For each of your values, make a list of things you could do to put those values into practice. For example, if you wrote “Learning,” you could go back to college and do that degree you’ve always dreamed of.&nbsp;</li><li>Make Decisions According to Your Values.&nbsp;If you value health, do you always take care of your body, or do you sometimes end up eating burgers instead of bulgur?</li><li>Possible Barriers to Overcome.&nbsp;Discrepancy between your values and some else's. You could choose to focus on your own actions and on living according to your own values, without challenging those around you who live differently. </li></ul>

Live Your Values and Use Them 

Your personal values aren't set in stone. While some of your core values will probably stay the same throughout your life, others may change as your life circumstances change or simply as you get older and start to have a different view of what’s important.It’s worth checking in yearly to see if your values have changed.

Adapt and Change Your Values When Needed

Living by your personal values sounds easy-at least in theory. Your values, after all, are simply the things that are important to you in life, so it should be natural to live by them. And yet so many of us don't consistently live by our values.

7 Steps to Discovering Your Personal Core Values

What Are Your Values?: - Deciding What's Most Important in Life

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