values part II

I don't feel as if I've finished with the whole values piece yet so have decided to write another post. With two aims really. One, to actually consider what I mean by values and two to consider what mine are.

So, firstly, I think values are qualities or beliefs that we feel are worthwhile or meaningful...or an organisation feels are meaningful. Or a political party, charity etc. Kind of like a philosophy. They kind of set our priorities and act as our driving force, define how we behave and guide us.

This is what I was referring to in my last post.  If we know what ours are, we'll find it easier to navigate life's myriad of choices. We can work out what's meaningful to us and then work out how to go about putting it into practice, and in my very simplified version of what happens next...we end up happier than otherwise.

I can see why, I can see a number of sort of scenarios where this would certainly help me anyway.

For example...I am pretty crap at making decisions. Either I take ages to make a decision in the first place, or I make a quick one then wonder if I made the wrong one. There's a lot going on here around fear, lack of trust and blah, but if I had a set of motivating values or priorities by which to make my decisions it might make it a bit easier or at least appease that bloody George (see earlier post!) jabbering on at me afterwards that I'd got it wrong.  Same goes for inner conflict...essentially another form of decision making nonsense. Then there's a sense of fulfilment and achievement, a sense of direction, a sense of having 'come home' and so on.

So I decided to make a list of my values. And here they are:

Achievement

Balance

Calm

Challenge

Creativity

Charity

Compassion

Determination

Discovery

Enjoyment

Excellence

Faithfulness

Friendship

Fun

Gratitude

Growth

Happiness

Health

Honesty

Innovation
Intuition

Joy

Kindness

Knowledge

Love

Mindfulness

New-ness

Openness

Peace

Progress

Respect

Self

Stability

Timeliness

Trust

Understanding

Well-being

Wisdom

There's a lot there! But they're all important. I'm going to spend some time thinking about which are at the top of the list.  If you fancy having a go yourself but get a bit stuck, just Google 'personal values'...there are lists of common ones online you can look at to see which resonate for you and go from there.

So, now I consciously know what's important to me, if I find myself with a decision to make I can sense check if it's in line with my values. Or if I start to feel a bit squiffy or out of sorts, I can have a think to see if something is out of line with what I believe in. And as soon as I spot something has gone awry I can make steps to make it right again.

Phew, that feels better :)