Discovering and Living Your Core Values: The Key to Success, Happiness, and Inner Peace

As human beings, we all have a personal set of core values that reflect the essence of who we are. However, consciously allowing them to guide us through life is crucial in achieving success, happiness, and inner peace. Most successful businesses operate by following a fundamental set of core values, and the same principles apply to our personal lives. In this article, we explore the importance of discovering and living our core values and how it can positively impact our lives.

Write it out

The first step in living a life full of purpose and passion is to write down your own personal values. Your values, though tied to your morals and ethics, are not a system of right or wrong. Your personal values are the things you value the most. What drives you? What makes you feel alive, energized, and invigorated? Is it love, family, money, career, popularity, serving others, social justice, rescuing animals? The list goes on and on. What do you love? What matters to you?

Now that you have identified them – write them down. Research shows that writing down your values yields dozens of positive results such as:

• You get a true picture of who you really are and what you stand for. To get what you truly want, you must be who you truly are.

• You will begin to manage your time better. You will learn to make better choices about where you spend your time.

• Knowing and being true to what really matters to you will ignite your passion for your purpose, and being able to fulfill your purpose fuels that passion even more. The two are interdependent and keep you motivated and moving forward.

• Our values are like our internal compass. They keep us headed toward our true north. When we get off course, having them written down helps us notice sooner. Writing about our values reminds us of where we need to be and helps us get back on track more easily.

• Our values are our roots that keep us grounded in what’s important to us. Having them written down visually reminds us to stay true to who we really are.

In short, discovering, defining, writing down, and living your core values helps to ensure that you get more of the right things done and makes the journey so much more enjoyable.

Seeing your personal values in writing reduces stress

Dr. Kelly McGonigal, a Stanford professor and author of the book The Upside of Stress, has studied the impact that connecting our personal values to our experiences – specifically journaling about the connection – has on our overall health, well-being, and ability to cope with stress. According to Dr. McGonigal’s research, there are life-altering benefits to writing about our personal values:

“In the long term, writing about values has been shown to boost GPAs, reduce doctor visits, improve mental health, and help with everything from weight loss to quitting smoking and reducing drinking. It helps people persevere in the face of discrimination and reduces self-handicapping. In many cases, these benefits are a result of a one-time mindset intervention. People who write about their values once, for ten minutes, show benefits months or even years later.”

McGonigal believes that writing about how the events of our day match up with our deepest personal values can mentally and biologically improve our ability to deal with stress. In the cases she studied, she found that:

“Stressful experiences were no longer simply hassles to endure; they became an expression of values… small things that might otherwise have seemed irritating became moments of meaning.”

Putting it into action

When our actions and activities don’t align with our values, we feel less authentic and become demotivated in our daily lives. Below are a few simple steps to assist you in aligning your actions, activities, goals, and life purpose with your own unique set of values:

Writing it down:

• Choose the top five (or less) things you value most in life and write them down.

• Define what each of those values means to YOU.

• Reflect on your day (or week). What went well? When did you feel stressed? Why?

• Select one or two highs and one or two stressful events and briefly jot down how they connect to at least one of your core values.

• Select one or two core values and jot down something you can do the next day (or during the following week) that will positively reflect that value.

Self-assessment:

• As time progresses, keep a tally of how many times you purposely and intentionally engage in activities that positively reflect your value system.

• Assess your stress levels. Are you feeling more or less stressed/anxious since you began the exercise? How is your passion and motivation? Do you feel driven?

• Assess your physical well-being. How are you feeling overall? What changes have you noticed (more or less: headaches, neck and back pain, tension, upset stomach, etc.)?

• Plan your action: what can you do to keep this moment going?

The most important thing you can do for your personal success today is to not only know your core values but live them. Allow them to become a part of your day-to-day life. Write about them and learn to see them in everything you do. A life lined up with personal values is a well-lived, purpose-filled life.

Conclusion

Discovering and living our core values is essential for living a fulfilling life. When we align our actions and goals with our personal values, we become more authentic and motivated, and we feel less stress and anxiety. Writing down our core values can have a significant impact on our health and well-being, enabling us to cope better with stress and improve our overall quality of life. By taking simple steps to put our values into action, we can achieve more success, happiness, and inner peace. Live your values today and experience the positive impact they bring to your life.