What will you learn from reading this article?
- How core values help you find direction in life
- How you can begin to clarify your core values
What are core values?
Core values involve the fundamental beliefs in your life that impact your decisions and behaviors. Ultimately, it is your core values that help define your inner purpose and how you find your self-worth.
Finding clarity on your own personal core values can require time, trial and error, and changing conditioned thinking patterns and behavior.
Here are 3 ways core values can help you find direction in your life..
1. Core values help you navigate life better
Have you ever tried walking in the dark? Did you manage to make it to the end, or did you stumble and fall along the way? Now try walking down the same path, but with a light. How different was your experience this time?
Our core values are like the light that illuminates your path towards your goal. These values help you make decisions that are aligned to what you want to achieve and where you envision yourself to be in the future.
2. Core values form your safety net
Usually your core values are based on your own unique beliefs, virtues you hold as valuable, and characteristics you hope to nurture to achieve your goals.
Having a clear understanding of these values will help you form a safety net, so that you can test out the waters before you take the plunge. It’s as if you are learning to ride a bicycle with training wheels on.
3. Core values help you identify your ‘why’
Distractions, comparisons, questions and choices can arise in your journey when you start the process of trying to reach your desired life.
Identifying your core values early will help you understand your “why” strongly. And knowing this “why” will keep you grounded when challenges arise.
Conclusion
As simple as it seems, the journey of identifying your core values requires time, a lot of trial and error, and weeding out conditioned patterns of thinking and pre-programmed ways of doing things.
When we (Kavitha & Kester) started this journey of identifying our core values, we faced many challenges. We hit a lot of dead ends, wrong turns and at times even struggled and questioned our choices and thinking.
What kept us going was the determination to break free, to retire if you will from the so-called “normal way of life”.
In this journey, we have been called a “vagabond”; “gypsy”; “inconsiderate”; and many other terms by family and society.
Today, our life may not be considered “safe” and “certain”, but we enjoy our work of emotional therapy and helping others find meaning and direction in life, and love the process of creating our own life on our own terms.
Find out more about our online therapy and in-person face to face therapy in Singapore if you would like Intracresco to guide you on discovering your life’s direction.
