Define Core Values

Nov 23, 2015

I have been trying to do this for quite a long time. Yes I had some ideas and understanding of who I want to be and how I want to live my life. But sitting for a while, thinking about life, clearing up head and writing down my core values - this was not done till yesterday.

Why?

It might not seem like anything special. Why should you write down your core values? The simplest reason is that it will help you take decisions which are in alignment with your personal philosophy. It is not tough to make a decision when you have to choose between a good thing and a bad thing. But in life, most of the time you have to make a decision between a good thing and another good thing. It’s tough to do that. However it can become a whole lot easier if you know your values by which you want to live. Writing them down in a piece of paper which you can take a look at anytime you want can help you visualize yourself when you feel blurry about your values.

How?

Yesterday I got some free time and thought it’s time I made my list. So I sat down and started reading some articles. I came across this article on values at collegeinfogeek and found out some really good information. There are some values that you know yourself. But some doesn’t come up intuitively where some clues might help. So here is a list of common values that might help you find out yours. These two articles are good enough to help you a lot. If you want to learn more about why you should define these values, what benefits it offers and how to do it, in greater detail, then just google!

Here’s a suggestion, don’t include all the values in your list. All the values are noble and so tempting to include in your list. But then it won’t make any sense. Try to figure out what matters most to you and what you can actually live by your whole life. Then stick to those few and never ever break them.

Glance at my list

Here are a few from my list.

Responsible: Being responsible for what I am doing, what I am supposed to do and never give bullshit excuse.

Reliable, dependable, trustworthy: People have to find me reliable and trustworthy, someone they can put their faith into.

Growth, experience, learn: Keep on growing constantly and consistently. Learn new stuffs everyday. Experience everything possible to experience without causing any harm to anybody.

Balance: Try to keep up balance in every aspect of my life. Balance in work, personal life, health etc.

Rational: Being a rational human being means a lot to me.

Happiness, humor: Find happiness in every aspect and be humorous with people.

There are a couple more but I just wanted to mention these to give you an idea and also hold myself accountable to follow these by publicly announcing here!

What you can do now

If you have already understood the concept, just go ahead and take out a piece of paper and start writing down your values. Make sure that you take a look at that paper once in a while and ask yourself if you are actually living by these. If you need to learn more, go to the articles I mentioned. Also there are lots of youtube videos available on this topic.