Make your values your priority

If life has become off balance check that your priorities are aligned to your values.

Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. They (should) determine your priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to.

Values are different to morals, as morals are what have been determined as right or wrong by the society in which we are raised.

Who you are, what you hold dear, what upsets you, and what underlies your decisions, are all connected to your personal values. Your values reflect what is important to you. They are a shorthand way of describing your motivations. Together with your beliefs, they are the causal factors that drive your decision-making.

However values change throughout the varying stages of our life (going from single life into a committed relationship, starting a family or moving into retirement) and as such we need to re-evaluate these values regularly to ensure that what is really important to us and what is driving our decisions is still what we really want.

For most of society, we strive for ownership; homes, cars, fashion and money, but what is the actual value driving these desires? Well more often than not it is the value of security, safety and belonging.

When we are driven to save for overseas holidays it is the value of freedom that we are actually seeking, to be removed from responsibilities and routines of daily life.

Each behaviour has an underlying goal which is driven by a subconscious value. By becoming aware of what is actually driving us, we are able to gain control of what motivates us and ask ourselves:

Is this what I really want?

For example, if our deeper value is freedom and we know that this is the driving motivation behind wanting to take an overseas holiday. We could then ask ourselves -

What small change could I make to my current reality that would enable me to feel more freedom? or What is it about my life that doesn't make me feel free?

By evaluating our values we are able to see what is truly driving us and re-arrange our values to suit the various stages of our lives or prioritise particular values in order to achieve a goal.

If you want to determine what your top 6 values are that is driving your subconscious mind, there are several online tools.

Barrett Values centre has a free tool

https://www.valuescentre.com/tools-assessments/pva/

visit balancemyworklife.com for more Life coaching insights

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