It is not an understatement to say that living your life in alignment to your core values life is essential for a happy and healthy life.

When you live in accordance with your values you will feel comfortable in your body, things make sense, you will feel more confident and comfortable with the actions you take and decisions you make.

Conversely, if you are not living in alignment with your core values it can genuinely make you physically and emotionally unwell. It can cause stress, discomfort, unease and sadness. For example, if you had to work in a culture that directly opposed even one of your core values (e.g. that mistreating animals was okay) it would make every day a challenge.

Therefore, identifying your core values is essential in allowing you to understand what is important in your life. Living your core values allows you to:

• Clarify your understanding of who you are
• Make decisions and choices you are comfortable with
• Maintain healthy relationships
• Identify environments that allow you to thrive and avoid those that don’t

To determine your core values, please find a list of values below. This list is not exhaustive, please feel free to add your own values in the empty spaces provided. Start by reading the full list and immediately ticking the words that jump out at you. Then go back through the ticked words and using a highlighter pen, highlight the ones that still resonate with you. Then choose two different coloured pens, one representing career values and the other representing personal values, and circle which value resonates with which part of your life. Many will probably resonate in both areas, others may be separate.

Keep going through the list fine tuning your choice until you have reduced the words to your Top 10 personal values and your Top 10 career values – it is fine, and very common, if your Top 10 values are the same for both areas. If necessary, refer to a dictionary to differentiate between words that have a similar meaning (e.g. truth and honesty).

In choosing your values consider things like:

• Where have you have encountered situations that challenge your values in real life, how did it made you feel?
• What shapes your behaviour?
• What are you passionate about?
• What motivates you?
• What do you love doing?

If you are struggling to identify your core values, ask yourself these questions:

• Think of someone you respect or admire, what values do they exude?
• ⁠If you could have more of any one quality, what would it be?
• ⁠Which personality trait, attribute, or quality do you get complimented on the most?
• ⁠What are the important values you would like to pass on to future generations?

Then in the column provided write down your Top 10:

• Personal values
• Career values
• Personal and career values
• Overall core values

Maybe pin this list up somewhere you can see it to remind yourself daily.

(For a PDF version of the values and boxes for completion, please click here)