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How to Discover Your Values and Use Them to Make Better Decisions
Takeaways On Making a Core Values List
Research shows that the happiest and most productive people take daily actions in line with their core values and get more easily into a state of flow. This gives them a constant sense of motivation because they see how their daily work leads to a long-term vision, meaningful to them.
Your personal values are specific to you and a result of your own life experiences. You can discover and refine your values through life experience or encountering ideas that resonate with you. Having a written list of your personal values will help you make better decisions.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
A Definition of values
“(Values) are the principles that give our lives meaning and allow us to persevere through adversity”
- The Self-Confidence Workbook.&...
Choosing Core Values
- Choose your top 6-8 values from a wide-ranging list of values.
Think of three to six people you most admire or love. Consider why they are so important to you.
See a career counsellor as they are able to help match their clients to a compatible career area.
- Use an online values inventory.
- Observe yourself and learn. If you experience a lot of dissatisfaction with your choices, you may not be living up to your values or you may need to re-evaluate what is most important to you.
- Focus on the bitter and the sweet in your life. These moments could direct you to what you care about most.
Difficult Choices
At times two cherished values will be in conflict.
Knowing why you are choosing Value 1 instead of Value 2 in that instance can be helpful in resolving any inner conflict you may feel.
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Key Ideas
Choose Your Top Values
Select your top six to eight values. Some of these values may change as you face new situations.
Examples of values: financial security, compassion, health/fitness, nature, accomplishment,...
Think of the people you admire
Values can be personified in people that you love and admire. Identifying the specific values embodied by your heroes can inspire you to adopt those values for yourself. To uncover the values that you associate with your loved ones and role models:
- Identify and write down six people who are important role models or valued connections for you.
- Think of the values they embody.
See a Career Counselor
Your values are a major determinant of career choice, work decisions, and career transitions, as each may lead you down a different career path.
That’s why career counselors have a large toolbox of strategies and inventories, including values inventories to help match their clients to a compatible career area.
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Key Ideas
Our emotions are short-term biased
Our emotions are obsessed with the present moment because it’s difficult to look past our immediate fears and anxieties. And this prevents good decision-making.
The sweet spot in de...
“Risky” behavior you should consider
- Propose “moonshot” ideas, knowing that 90% of them will get shot down, but that if one of them gets accepted, it will be a huge boost to your career.
- Be excessively bold in your dating life, stating exactly who and what you want.
- Buy difficult books expecting that most of them won’t be useful to you, but also that, occasionally, one will completely change your life.
- Say yes to every invitation knowing that most of the events/people will be boring, but that occasionally you’ll meet someone really interesting.
Optimizing life for fewer regrets
Most of us are afraid of messing thing up. But we rarely ask, “Would I regret that failure?” If the answer is “no,” then that is absolutely a risk you should pursue.
Sometimes, the right decision becomes crystal clear when put into these terms.