Want to get clear on your values? Try this exercise

Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash

According to Dr. Barb Markway and Celia Ampel values are:

“…the principles that give our lives meaning and allow us to persevere through adversity.”

A person’s values may change over time but are typically very stable for long periods of time in their life. Your values come from within you. No one should tell you or decide for you what your values are. There are no right or wrong values.

You may sense or experience your values in your own life in a variety of ways.

• Values are how you experience meaning in life.
• Values guide you when you must make hard decisions.
• Values are made visible in your life through your actions.

While no one else should tell you or decide for you what your values are, they may be words that other people use to describe you. For example,

• if you are someone who values humor, your friends may describe you as a jokester, the life of the party, or as really funny.
• if you are someone who values achievement, you might be described as driven, competitive, and/or successful. In this example, any of those words could be a value but what gives you meaning is the achievement of a goal or a win.