Values are principles or standards that are important or valuable for us. They are way of being or the believes that we hold most important. Our values makes us ‘us’ and our values, drive our behaviour. That is why for self awareness, it is important to be clear what our values are and if we use our values to decide our career or anything we do, we will thrive in that.

If our core values are compromised, in our job or business, it will become meaningless for us. That is why it is important to put our values first before making any decision about career or making any choices. The values does not remain the same throughout the life and they are individual for ourselves. But our values remains the same regardless of the setting or situation. If we are home or at work our values remain the same, as they are the way of being and should not change based in on where we are.

There are lots of list of values available online to help name our values. One of them is https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Values.pdf

Take a look at the above list and identify your values. If we are not able to name our values, we can’t live them, so the first step is to spend some time to reflect.

Knowing our values and then living them build our integrity. Unless we understand what drives us and what motivates us, we are often guessing and not reach our potential. If we want to get to what really connects us and gives us energy, the awareness of our values is essential.

Ask yourself what define you? Is this who I am at my best? Is this a filter that I use to make hard decisions?

Simon Sinek suggests that since our values defines the how of what we do, we should define our values in verbs instead of nouns, because nouns are not actionable. Nouns are things and you can’t build systems or develop incentives around those things. Also we can’t hold ourselves or others accountable to nouns. These are some of the examples of how we can convert the values or guiding principles form noun to verb to make them more actionable and give us clear idea how to act in any situation

• Integrity- Always do the right thing
• Innovation- Look at the problem from a different angle

Beware that sometimes people think that certain values are most important for them but they are not their own values, they are family values that are passed along. So deep self reflection is needed to identify your own values.