What are Values?
Let’s discuss a bit about your values. What is the difference between values and beliefs and how does this affect our behaviour?
You may ask yourself why this is so important? Knowing what your top values are saves you time, effort and energy. It is also important because if you do not have a clear understanding of your values, beliefs and motivations, you can’t make informed decisions about your future. As you seek changes in your life and you move towards a more fulfilling life which will encompass your life purpose and goals, your Values need to be congruent with your life purpose and goals otherwise you will always feel that you are at odds with your True Self (Your Soul).
Your values impact on every aspect of your lives:
- Your Values influence your actions, behaviour and the decisions you make.
- Values help you to prioritise your life.
- Your goals and life purpose are grounded in your Values.
You need to decide what values are most important to you. Then live by them.
Living by your values helps you to accomplish your goals and dreams and helps you lead and influence others.
So what are values?
Values are traits and qualities that represent your highest priorities and deeply held driving forces, it is what motivates you and gets you out of bed every morning.
Why is it important that you identify your Values?
The Values you hold are a combination of influences from your parents, family, religious beliefs, friends, education and even what you read.
For you to become a more efficient person you need to recognise these influences, identify and develop a clear, concise and meaningful set of Values/Beliefs.
What is the difference between a Value and a Belief?
To help you a bit more, I want to give you some definitions of values and beliefs that might help you understand the difference. See what resonates with you so that you can understand the difference.
- Beliefs are what your values are based on. For example if you strongly support Pro-Life this is then your Value. What your Value is based on, is your Belief (which could be one of many) that it is not right to kill a human being. Thus your belief determines what you deem valuable.
- When you Value something you give importance to a thing or idea. Beliefs are things that you think are true.
- Values are things that you think are valuable. Beliefs are things that you think are true.
Therefore beliefs are the assumptions you make about yourself and others in the world. Beliefs are about how you think things really are. Beliefs tend to be deep set and your values stem from your beliefs.
Values are about how you think things ought to be or people ought to behave, especially in terms of qualities such as honesty, integrity and openness which when people are asked what are their values tend to be the main values. (These are also known as universal values)
Another definition that is useful at this time to note is attitude.
Attitudes are the established ways of responding to people and situations that you have learned, based on the Beliefs, Values and Assumptions you hold. How you respond to situation and your behaviour can reflect your attitude.
So how do I go about finding my values?
First find a quiet place, have a pen and paper and write down your values, some examples of values are: Integrity, service, responsibility, equality, respect, self improvement, education or learning, loyalty, security, Challenge this is just a small example of values that people hold.
Look at the values you have written down, some may be “Universal values” e.g. Honesty
Out of the others select your top 10 and rank them according to importance. This is not set in stone and you may find as you work with these values their importance to you will change. Also remember that if you feel that one or more of the “universal values” are your top value then included when you prioritise your values.
Now look at the list you have in front of you. Do you think these values drive you? Is this what gets you out of bed in the morning? If not relook at this and see what it is that drives you.
This post is republished with permission. Find more of Noeleen Bontempi’s writing at LifeChallengers.com. Read the original post here