How to Find Your Personal Values – Examples

To experience all round success in both work and your personal life, you need to live and breathe the values which hold true for you. To do that, you need to figure out what your key personal values are. The secret of a balanced life that gives you happiness, success, and fulfillment, lies in your most deeply held personal beliefs. Hence, it is important that you understand them. These deeply held beliefs provide the foundation that every individual need to receive guidance and for making the right choices.

With the help of these deeply held beliefs, you will be able to judge the appropriateness of jobs and careers. These assist in choosing your hobbies and volunteering activities. Your interaction with colleagues is driven by these beliefs and values. They are also responsible for governing your relationships with your family and friends. Let’s analyse and understand about values.

What Are Personal Values?

Personal values are the qualities or characteristics which are considered as worthwhile. Values represent your top most priorities and deeply held driving factors. Whenever you are part of any organisation, you carry with you these deeply held beliefs and values to the organisation. These values then merge with the values of the other members of the organisation to create the true organisational culture.

Value statements are usually derived from and based on personally held values. These values govern how people wish to behave with one another in an organisation, a company, an institution, or a family. Value statements depict how an organisation is likely to value its customers, its internal community, and suppliers. Value statements illuminate the actions and behaviours which are a real endorsement of fundamental values held by the majority of individuals within the organisation. A hospital’s value statement, for example, would likely embrace values such as Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence

Examples of personal values

Listed below are some examples of personal values. You may utilise these as the starting point for pondering and expressing what you stand for as a human being.

• Individuality
• Competency
• Equality
• Ambition
• Responsibility
• Integrity
• Service
• Respect
• Accuracy
• Improvement
• Dedication
• Diversity
• Credibility
• Enjoyment/fun
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Excellence
• Innovation
• Teamwork
• Empowerment
• Accountability
• Dignity
• Quality
• Efficiency
• Stewardship
• Accomplishment
• Collaboration
• Empathy
• Independence
• Courage
• Wisdom
• Influence
• Security
• Challenge
• Compassion
• Learning
• Discipline
• Friendliness
• Persistence
• Generosity
• Optimism
• Flexibility
• Dependability
• Change

How Do You Define Personal Values?

The process defining your values uncovers what’s truly important to you.

1. Start by reflecting on your life and career and highlight the moments when you felt great, happy and confident you made the right choices. Be specific, what were you doing? Who were you with? What were the factors that brought on this happiness?

2. Look for the times when pride was at its peak. What did you do to feel proud? Who did you share it with? Why? What were the factors that brought on this pride?

3. Look for the times when you were most fulfilled and satisfied. What need or desire was fulfilled? How and why did the experience give your life meaning? What were the factors that brought on this fulfillment?

4. Assess your core values, based on your experiences of happiness, pride, and fulfillment

Why is it important to identify and establish personal values?

Your personal values are formed out of your life experiences, and they also include the influences from your friends, family, education, religious beliefs, skills, knowledge, and attitudes. People who are smart and intelligent make a note of these external and environmental influences and identify and frame a clear, concise, and meaningful set of beliefs/values and priorities in life. Once you define them, these values have a significant impact on every aspect of your life. You use these values to display and put them into action in your personal and work life, interpersonal communication, contribution, and decision making. You can utilise these values to set goals and make decisions in your day to day life and work. Your life purpose and goals are also grounded in your values. You need to select those values which resonate with you and you believe in.

This is what defines you.

It’s a simple formula; embrace these values, committing towards them, living and breathing them every day. Personal values are one of the most powerful tools to help you transform into the individual that you wish to be. These values will help you achieve your dreams and goals and help you to lead and inspire others. A person who is driven by great values can create a fruitful fulfilling life, and career. So, refrain from wasting this beautiful opportunity that lies within you to explore and implement personal values today!