Learning about Personal Values

Hey, people out there! Welcome back!

It’s been a while I have written something but today I felt that it would be amazing if I would share what I am learning in my personal growth.

For some days I am getting lost in my life. Questions about life are troubling me like what the vision of my life is, discovering myself, who am I, what are my own beliefs and many more. So, in a constant search of resources to gain clarity on my life I read somewhere:

“ To know your life vision, you need to know who you are and what your values are”

Now again, another question for me; What are values? and How to find my own values? So again search for it began.

What are personal values?

Values can be simply described as things that are especially important to us. For example family, health, security, freedom, trust. You can say they are the theme of our lives. They are always present with us, although we do not always have to be aware of them. They led you to where you are today. They shaped you as a human being and determine how you are perceived by others.

For example, a health-conscious person will feel the great importance of their diet and exercise. Thanks to their systematic efforts, they enjoy vitality and are perceived by others as a specimen of health.

We can also interpret values ​​as goals that we want to achieve in a long term. They can slowly change over time because they depend on our current stage of life. Different values ​​are attractive to young people just entering adulthood. Different for people developing their careers and starting their own families. And completely different for people who have raised children and are finishing their professional careers.

So the question is — did you choose your values yourself?

The answer does not always seem obvious, as this choice was not usually the result of one conscious decision. Your values ​​were determined by the whole baggage of experience you have gathered along the way. All the events and situations that helped you discover what’s important to you.

There are also single moments that can completely remodel our hierarchy of values.

Imagine a situation in which someone finds out that they are terminally ill and do not have much time left. How valuable will health and time spent with loved ones be then? How much will professional success and money be worth?

Values ​​are a very individual matter. Even if two people declare that their most important value is a success, each of them may ascribe a different meaning to it and implement this value in their own way.

Now that you have an idea of ​​what values ​​are, let’s think about the benefits of knowing your own values.

How to discover your values?

Defining your own values ​​is not as easy as it seems. First, you need to understand what they are and prepare a complete list of values ​​from which you will be able to select the most important ones for yourself.

Where to get the full list of values? There are many lists on the Internet, but they are often incomplete or too long. You need a list that allows you to find all the values ​​and is not a random set of synonyms.

Here is the list which I am using for me: https://personalvalu.es/

While comparing values:

• think which one is more important to you and why?
• imagine situations in which both values being compared must compete with each other.
• decide which value you would be willing to sacrifice for the other.

It is worth repeating the entire exercise regularly. Preferably once every six months.

So let’s begin our journey to self-discovery together.