What Are Your Personal Values?

So much change these days. So many challenges and so many opportunities. Maybe it’s time to revisit your personal values and let them drive your actions, behaviors and even dreams for these turbulent years to come?

But what are your personal values and in particular what are they in the context of your career and work situation?

Here, we should first recognize that there are many types of values with even more examples on each so it is easy to get kind of lost in this. 

Thus, a fairly universal way of looking at value is to think of it like this:

“Values are individual principles and beliefs that shape our mindset and perspectives and thus motivate and drive our behaviors. It’s a personal guide on what is important for us in life.”

When we look into personal values, I like how world-famous coach, Tony Robbins approaches this in his blog on personal values. Here’s a snippet.

“ There are two types of values: personal values and cultural values. What are personal values? These are our own beliefs about right and wrong. They belong to us personally and they shape the way we look at the world. 

Cultural values are those that are accepted by the societies we grow up in. These values vary by both place and context but their effects on our lives can be just as powerful as personal values.” - Tony Robbins

What are our personal values?

So, what are your personal values and how do they impact your decisions, behaviors and dreams in the context of your career and work? Let me share three of my own examples to start your reflection.

# Curiosity

Many years ago, I decided to force myself to stay constantly curious as I had a few run-ins with the feeling of getting older, not being up to date. I decided that this does not have much to with age but more about mindset and that being constantly curious is a great way of fighting this.

My key element here is what I call observation plus reflection. I like to observe and then ponder on what the observations actually mean and how this influences my own thoughts and behaviors. Having turned this into an on-going process, it brings me new perspectives that are key to my second value which is learning.

# Learning

What does it take to be a life-long learner and how do we make this happen every day? Some of my thoughts are that learning today is social and collaborative so I try to learn with and through others while I also work on finding the right balance between quick micro-learning and the deeper immersion of learning. 

I see that the biggest challenge for learning today is the “being too busy-syndrome” which is also a real threat to personal as well as corporate/organizational health today. Thus, the people who are able to carve out specific time to reflect and learn get a lot of kudos in my book.

# Helping others

I like to help others and although I sometimes struggle with this as I am a highly introvert person, I believe this has become one of my core personal values that simply helps me be a better person. Of course, this is valuable in a career and work context as this is so much about relationships and collaboration.

If you want more inspiration, it’s easy to just google “personal values” and find the examples that match you the best. The challenge is to narrow it down to only a few true values that really matter to you.

Identify and define your values

Tony Robbins suggests that we can better identify our personal values by asking ourselves some questions to dive deeper into our true thoughts and feelings. These feelings are driven by our personal values.

Here is a list of questions to get you started:

• What are your most curious about these days? What do you do - on purpose - to stay curious? How do you keep your curiosity sharp?
• How do you learn? I like to ask this in general as well as within a specific context.
• How do you respond to hard, but constructive, feedback?
• What do you - honestly - feel about the success of others in your close circles?
• Think three years out and then back. What are the key elements that need to happen or change for you to get there in a good way?
• If you could change anything about the world, what would it be and why would you change this? 
• When were you the happiest in your life and at what point were you the saddest? How did this shape your mindset, perspectives and behaviors?
• Look at the people you spend the most time with. Are your interactions with them geared for the past and present or for the future? Why have you chosen to spend time with these people?
• In the context of your work, career, what are you most proud of?
• What makes you a good leader? A good team member?
• What does success look like for you?
• In a work and career context, what are you better at than almost anyone else?

An exercise for you!

What are three personal values for you and what does this mean for your career and work? 

You can reflect on this and add a few sentences just like I did above. Next, you can challenge yourself to develop a set of actions that can help you use these values even more in your professional life.

The end-note and a bonus, the Ikigai

We need to better understand and connect with our personal values to thrive - let alone survive - these turbulent times ahead of us. You can start this today. Are you up for it?

One of my favorite concepts is the Ikigai - a Japanese way of making sense of what we do. As you work on your personal values, I think you should also consider your Ikigai. See below image.