People who are happiest and most content with their lives, know, without a doubt, that what they are doing right now and the friends they choose to connect with – are in complete alignment with what they truly value.
If you want your life to change for the better, the time to start living in accordance with what you value is right now. And what you do now, will pretty much determine your future.
“For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”
Most of our frustration and suffering comes from not living in accordance with our values.
You see, if what I value is personal time and the freedom to make my own schedule and do my own thing at my own pace and suddenly I place myself in a relationship or situation where I am required to give up the time, I may feel trapped, held hostage, and/or unable to do what I want or need to do, I get very upset and angry.
What this looks like
It could be my parents (I really love them so) who guilt me into thinking it is my responsibility to leave my life by the curb and my daily pleasures so that I take care of them for long periods at a time because they didn’t “plan” on falling ill. They assumed I would come to their rescue I guess.
It could be a client who wants me to put in more hours (again taking from my personal freedom to schedule my own day) then we agreed to or change our strategy in the middle of a project because the strategy they paid me to create isn’t working fast enough.
It could be a good friend who decides that I am not giving enough to our relationship, so I give more of my time even though I would rather be doing something else.
Anytime I and you am/are not living in accordance with what we most value we will hit a block, feel stuck, disappointed and frustrated. We are angry at ourselves for not staying true to what we really believe and our values and this in turn this leads to more pain and confusion.
Understanding our values will become easier when we know what we like, enjoy or want out of our lives and how we expect ourselves to go about it all. Our values are like our set of rules for engagement.
But How do You Develop Your Values?
Most of what you value came from what your parents told you that your should value.
That is until you grew up and realized that you could develop a whole new set of values and evaluate those values as you grow older.
A Beginner’s List of Values
- Abundance
- Acceptance
- Accomplishment
- Accountability
- Accuracy
- Achievement
- Acknowledgement
- Activeness
- Adaptability
- Adoration
- Adroitness
- Advancement
- Adventure
- Affection
- Affluence
- Aggressiveness
- Agility
- Alertness
- Altruism
- Amazement
- Ambition
- Amusement
- Anticipation
- Appreciation
- Approachability
- Approval
- Art
- Articulacy
- Artistry
- Assertiveness
- Assurance
- Attentiveness
- Attractiveness
- Audacity
- Authenticity – to be genuinely yourself at all times. If you value your authenticity and you are in a position where you feel like you have to be someone you are not, you may become very frustrated and upset, because you are living against your core value of being 100% completely you. The same goes for if you are feeling unaccepted for who you are and what you stand for. If your friends or aquaintances disapprove of you, then you may be inclined to feel disappointed. To live an unapologetically authentic life while surrounding yourself around people who appreciate your uniqueness is extremely fulfilling. Find them.
- Availability
- Awareness
- Awe
- Balance
- Beauty
- Being the best
- Belonging
- Benevolence
- Bliss
- Boldness
- Bravery
- Brilliance
- Buoyancy
- Calmness
- Camaraderie
- Candor
- Capability
- Care – if showing genuine care and consideration in your relationships is something you believe to be very important than you will be hard pressed to find compatibility with someone who doesn’t demonstrate a warm, affectionate, tender and kind reciprocation back towards you.
- Carefulness
- Celebrity
- Certainty
- Challenge – when one of your core values is to be continually challenged by a life of learning, growing and expanding your consciousness, it is difficult to associate with people who are content with staying the same.
- Change
- Charity
- Charm
- Chastity
- Cheerfulness
- Clarity
- Cleanliness
- Clear-mindedness
- Cleverness
- Closeness
- Comfort
- Commitment
- Community
- Compassion
- Competence
- Competition
- Completion
- Composure
- Concentration
- Confidence
- Conformity
- Congruency
- Connection
- Consciousness
- Conservation
- Consistency
- Contentment
- Continuity
- Contribution
- Control
- Conviction
- Conviviality
- Coolness
- Cooperation
- Cordiality
- Correctness
- Country
- Courage
- Courtesy
- Craftiness
- Creativity
- Credibility
- Cunning
- Curiosity
- Daring
- Decisiveness
- Decorum
- Deference
- Delight
- Dependability
- Depth
- Desire
- Determination
- Devotion
- Devoutness
- Dexterity
- Dignity
- Diligence
- Direction
- Directness
- Discipline
- Discovery
- Discretion
- Diversity
- Dominance
- Dreaming
- Drive
- Duty
- Dynamism
- Eagerness
- Ease
- Economy
- Ecstasy
- Education
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Elation
- Elegance
- Empathy
- Encouragement
- Endurance
- Energy
- Enjoyment
- Entertainment
- Enthusiasm
- Environmentalism
- Ethics
- Euphoria
- Excellence
- Excitement
- Exhilaration
- Expectancy
- Expediency
- Experience
- Expertise
- Exploration
- Expressiveness
- Extravagance
- Extroversion
- Exuberance
- Fairness
- Faith
- Fame
- Family
- Fascination
- Fashion
- Fearlessness
- Ferocity
- Fidelity
- Fierceness
- Financial independence
- Firmness
- Fitness
- Flexibility
- Flow
- Fluency
- Focus
- Fortitude
- Frankness
- Freedom
- Friendliness
- Friendship
- Frugality
- Fun
- Gallantry
- Generosity
- Gentility
- Giving
- Grace
- Gratitude
- Gregariousness
- Growth
- Guidance
- Happiness
- Harmony
- Health
- Heart
- Helpfulness
- Heroism
- Holiness
- Honesty
- Honor
- Hopefulness
- Hospitality
- Humility
- Humor
- Hygiene
- Imagination
- Impact
- Impartiality
- Independence
- Individuality
- Industry
- Influence
- Ingenuity
- Inquisitiveness
- Insightfulness
- Inspiration
- Integrity
- Intellect
- Intelligence
- Intensity
- Intimacy
- Intrepidness
- Introspection
- Introversion
- Intuition
- Intuitiveness
- Inventiveness
- Investing
- Involvement
- Joy
- Judiciousness
- Justice
- Keenness
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Learning
- Liberation
- Liberty
- Lightness
- Liveliness
- Logic
- Longevity
- Love
- Loyalty
- Majesty
- Making a difference
- Marriage
- Mastery
- Maturity
- Meaning
- Meekness
- Mellowness
- Meticulousness
- Mindfulness
- Modesty
- Motivation
- Mysteriousness
- Nature
- Neatness
- Nerve
- Noncomformity
- Obedience
- Open-mindedness
- Openness
- Optimism
- Order
- Organization
- Originality
- Outdoors
- Outlandishness
- Outrageousness
- Partnership
- Patience
- Passion
- Peace
- Perceptiveness
- Perfection
- Perkiness
- Perseverance
- Persistence
- Persuasiveness
- Philanthropy
- Piety
- Playfulness
- Pleasantness
- Pleasure
- Poise
- Polish
- Popularity
- Potency
- Power
- Practicality
- Pragmatism
- Precision
- Preparedness
- Presence
- Pride
- Privacy
- Proactivity
- Professionalism
- Prosperity
- Prudence
- Punctuality
- Purity
- Rationality
- Realism
- Reason
- Reasonableness
- Recognition
- Recreation
- Refinement
- Reflection
- Relaxation
- Reliability
- Relief
- Religiousness
- Reputation
- Resilience – to get back in the saddle, to bounce back from a bad moment, to keep on going. If resilience is what you value, you may become very short-tempered with people who give up quickly or enjoy a good pity party.
- Resolution
- Resolve
- Resourcefulness
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Rest
- Restraint
- Reverence
- Richness
- Rigor
- Sacredness
- Sacrifice
- Sagacity
- Saintliness
- Sanguinity
- Satisfaction
- Science
- Security
- Self-control
- Selflessness
- Self-reliance
- Self-respect
- Sensitivity
- Sensuality
- Serenity
- Service
- Sexiness
- Sexuality
- Sharing
- Shrewdness
- Significance
- Silence
- Silliness
- Simplicity
- Sincerity
- Skillfulness
- Solidarity
- Solitude
- Sophistication
- Soundness
- Speed
- Spirit
- Spirituality
- Spontaneity
- Spunk
- Stability
- Status
- Stealth
- Stillness
- Strength
- Structure
- Success
- Support
- Supremacy
- Surprise
- Sympathy
- Synergy
- Teaching
- Teamwork
- Temperance
- Thankfulness
- Thoroughness
- Thoughtfulness – the act of being thoughtful means to pay attention to the details, to think things through before doing them, to plan with more discernment. If thoughtfulness is an important value to you then you may be very frustrated going to places and experiencing things that are rushed, unmannerly or discourteous.
- Thrift
- Tidiness
- Timeliness
- Traditionalism
- Tranquility
- Transcendence
- Trust
- Trustworthiness
- Truth – If you value the truth, you expect people to be honest with you and you earn and build their trust by being 100% real with them. When and if someone lies to you, you will suffer, because you value honesty in a relationship, whether it be a professional or personal one.
- Understanding
- Unflappability
- Uniqueness
- Unity
- Usefulness
- Utility
- Valor
- Variety
- Victory
- Vigor
- Virtue
- Vision
- Vitality
- Vivacity
- Volunteering
- Warmheartedness
- Warmth
- Watchfulness
- Wealth
- Willfulness
- Willingness
- Winning
- Wisdom
- Wittiness
- Wonder
- Worthiness
- Youthfulness
- Zeal
