Video presentation of this page
Next: Meaning
Values, the principles that determine the way you think and behave,
shape your priorities and illuminate your life path.
When you align your good values with your behavior, life is good! Poor values or being unable to match good values results in frustration and unhappiness.
For example, you value beauty but work in a stark office building. Or you value friendships but have been assigned to a post in Antarctica.
Making a conscientious effort to identify your values is very important. That effort will help you make life decisions that align with your values,
and in turn, help you toward your path of happiness and fulfillment.
Watch the video below to learn more about values.
Clarifying Your Values
To identify and clarify your values,
- Ask yourself when you have been the happiest? When have you been the most fulfilled?
- Write down a list five values you think are most important to you.
- Download the Values Clarification Worksheet using the link on this page.
- Choose your top five or six values from the combination of your list and the worksheet.
- Prioritize your values with number one being the most important.
Take a look at your list. Are you happy with it? Does it make you proud? Share it with a friend or two, and take a little time to make adjustments.
Congratulations! You are moving toward your path of growth and transformation!
Values Quotes
"It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are." Roy Disney
"Values aren't buses... They're not supposed to get you anywhere. They're supposed to define who you are." Jennifer Crusie
“Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits,
your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” Mahatma Gandhi
Knowing your values can improve your life by lowering your reaction to stress. (Creswell JD, Welch WT, Taylor SE, Sherman DK, Gruenewald TL, Mann T.
2005).
Participants who affirmed their values had significantly lower cortisol responses to stress, compared with control participants ...
These findings suggest that reflecting on personal values can keep neuroendocrine and psychological responses to stress at low levels.
Values affirmations can provide sustained increases in young adolescents' prosocial feelings and prosocial behaviors.
(Thomaes, Sander & Bushman, Brad & Castro, Bram & Reijntjes, Albert
2011).
Participants completed a brief writing exercise that affirmed the values they deemed either most important (value-affirmation group) or unimportant (control group).
As predicted, the value affirmation, coupled with a booster affirmation 6 weeks later, caused increases in prosocial feelings and behaviors over the 3-month study period.
Antisocial students who were value-affirmed showed especially strong increases in prosocial behavior.