The meaning of personal values
What's the meaning of personal values?
Personal values are a set of guiding principles and beliefs that help you differentiate between “good” and “bad.” These are concepts like integrity versus dishonesty or hard work versus cutting corners. Everyone prioritises their core values differently, and yours shape how you uniquely move through the world. Personal values influence your behaviours, relationships, and everyday life. They guide you through important decision-making and influence personal development.
Everyone has a unique set of values. What matters to you might not align with your friends, colleagues and even certain family members. But you’re more likely to share personal core values with the people closest to you.
Research shows that you might even be more attracted to people who share your values. Partners, colleagues, and family members that share yours are big green flags for long-lasting relationships. And everyone expresses these values differently, whilst all are valid expressions of the same value.
You may not be fully aware of your values, and identifying them can help you develop yourself. Understanding what’s important to you can help you align your actions with your inner self.
And this awareness helps you trim the toxic relationships, jobs, habits and rituals that drain your energy so you can live your happiest life. It might even help you feel more fulfilled, since engaging in activities aligned with your values can ease depression and anxiety and improve your mental well-being.
Plus, having a lifestyle that reflects the types of values that are important to you can make you more passionate and purposeful in your life. This will ultimately help you succeed because you’ll have a deeper motivation to do well.
Why are personal values important?
Your values form a significant part of your personal identity. They shape you into your authentic self and give you a sense of purpose and meaning, driving your personality, goal setting, and how you lead your life.
Your values also give you a better understanding of who you are. They help you work toward your dreams instead of against them. When you make decisions aligned with your personal values, you feel like your truest self.
Personal values play an important role in your relationships, too. When you know how to articulate your values, you can set clear boundaries, establish healthy bonds, and develop relationships that honour your self-respect.
And connecting with your values can help you connect with friends, extended family and co-workers who share them. A social network that shares your values can make your relationships more meaningful, supportive, and full of authenticity.
Lastly, prioritising your values can help you communicate what you need in the workplace, with loved ones, and with friends. Sharing these important feelings can improve your overall well-being, since repressing your emotions can have harmful health effects. And psychologists believe that connecting to important personal values can act as strong motivation to recover your mental wellness.
8 benefits of personal values
Personal values touch every aspect of your life. Besides improving your self-awareness and relationships, here are eight ways prioritising your values can benefit your daily life:
Boosts your confidence
Provides you with a vision that informs long-term goals
Creates a greater sense of purpose in your goals and ambitions
Helps you manage stress by focusing on what’s important in life
Guides your decision-making with a sense of ethics, self-respect, and integrity
Shows you a pathway for treating others how you’d like to be treated
Motivates you to be resilient during moments where life throws you “a spanner in the works” or other deeper life challenges
Makes you feel more satisfied with the choices that are in alignment with your moral values
The importance of adapting your values
Life isn’t static — and neither are your values. At any time, life might throw a new challenge your way. A chronic health issue, a growing family, the end of a toxic relationship, or the start of a new year are all opportunities to self-reflect. And as you adapt to the changes, your values grow and shift with them. Your values might move around in priority, too. It’s important to adapt your values and set goals that reflect your current situation.
Moving forward
Values come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of importance. Finding your values takes sustained effort. They aren’t always as straightforward as you think. But they’re always with you, guiding your decisions and influencing your actions.
Extracts taken from Elizabeth Perry from https://www.betterup.com