Personal Core Values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or a business. These guiding principles can dictate behavior, and help you to understand what is wrong or right in life.
Knowing your core values and having the courage to act on them for the greater good is what will help you be an efficient leader. Personal Core Values can be broken into two forms of values, Personal and Core.
Personal Values are generally lessons learned from life experiences
Core Values are embedded in you during your upbringing. They tend to be influenced by who we see as role models or who we look up to.
Many people claim to know what their personal core values are. I have the mindset that you do not really know them until you have your values written down on paper clearly and / or have tested them through life’s decision-making. Personal core values are there to guide your choices in life, if you get them right, decision making will be swift and focused.
Here is a list of my own personal core values and what they stand for.
Integrity: to live and work consistently working my personal core values. To stand up for what I believe in:
- Integrity: to work and live consistently within my core values. To stand up for my own personal beliefs.
- Leadership: My aim is to motivate and help people get into a better place in life.
- Happiness: to be content with myself and my life.
- Loyalty: to be committed to the goals of a group of people who have the same belief/ view/ values as I do.
- Health and Wellbeing: to be physically and mentally healthy. After all, your health is your wealth!!
- Family and Friendship: this is a massive value for me, without my friends and my family I would not be where I am today. I have surrounded myself with the right people to push and challenge me in the right direction.
- Influence: to have a positive effect on the character of behaviour of another person. This is another big value for me, there is nothing that gives me more satisfaction than having a positive influence on someone. I see this a lot with the Rebel Wheelers. I love showing the kids that just because they have a disability it does not mean they have to go through life and not smash their own targets or get to where they want to be in life. A wheelchair is not a limiting factor in life. A wheelchair is there to give you the ability to get out and do things.
Do you know what your own personal core values are? Here are a few questions to ask yourself to assess your own values.
Step 1
- What have been your three greatest accomplishments?
- What have been your three greatest moments of efficiency?
- Are there any commonalities with these two?
Step 2
- What have been your three greatest failures?
- What have been your three greatest moments of inefficiency?
- Are there any commonalities between these two?
Step 3
Write down three or four sentences of advice you would give yourself based on these commonalities.
Step 4
Try and reduce these pieces of advice into a few words. For example; “Don’t over eat on unhealthy foods and drink.” try saying ” “Keep control through moderation”.
Step 5
Now you need to go and test these values. If you feel good after them then these values are for you. If on the other hand, you are kicking yourself after testing these and thinking that they go against everything you believe in. Then maybe these are the wrong values for you and you might have to tweak or come up with new values to suit you at this time.
This process does take time and dedication, but it will do you good. You can try doing this with someone you trust. They will give you good honest feedback on what they think and if they feel these are your true values.
“Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.” Mahatma Ghandi