4 – Identify Your Core Values
Posted on 06. Feb, 2012 by Gavin Mountford in Tower of Productivity
Imagine this…
You haven’t seen your family for 3 days as you’ve been away on a business trip and you’ve missed them lots. You get home and are greeted by the loving arms of your partner and children…
You sit down for dinner with your family and the phone rings…
It turns out that two of your friends whom you haven’t seen for 2 years are in town for the evening.
What do you do?
- Do you stay in with your family?
- Go out with your friends?
For most people it would create arguments and inner conflict wouldn’t it?
But, if you are CLEAR on your values, you could just think about what’s MOST important to me? and then make the decision based on that.
This is just ONE example of how your values drive your decisions and govern your inner peace.
If you fight your values, you’ll live a life of unhappiness… and if you identify and respect your values, you’ll find much more inner peace.
My Values & Principles DRIVE Everything I Do.
They make my decisions easier because if I’ve got a choice between spending time with my family, or going for a run… they are both HIGH on my values list but family is more important to me.
Many years ago, I spent a lot of time working out what I VALUE most in my life… I knew that if I could identify the things which were most important to me, then I could focus my time and attention on living those values.
My List Of Values
- (Family & friends) Being there for and impacting my family and friends in many different positive ways.
- (Healthy) Eating healthy foods and maintaining a healthy body.
- (Empowering Others) Teaching, training, and making a difference to other people so they can have success in their life too.
- (Freedom) Have the freedom to work and live anywhere in the world.
- (Personal Growth) To be constantly learning and growing on a daily basis.
- (Honesty) Being honest to myself and others.
- (Integrity) Conducting my business and life with integrity
- (Inner peace) Inner peace & staying connected to my spiritual source
If you have inner conflict of any sort, it’s more than likely a VALUES issue. Maybe you don’t know what you want. You may not know what you value in your life, and in which order.
So, really spend some time on this…
Here Are Some Questions To Ask Yourself
- How do you live on a daily basis?
- What do you LOVE to do the most?
- How do you prefer to spend your time?
- Who do you enjoy spending time with?
There is much more to identifying your values… but I wanted to introduce you to them so you know they exist. This way you can begin to IDENTIFY your core values which motivate and drive you to action.
I’ll create a VALUES work sheet for you soon… Keep an eye out on the blog.
Your Friend & Time Saver,
Gavin Mountford
P.S. Leave me a comment below to let me know more about your values and principles…
P.P.S. If you could SHARE this post on Facebook… I’d truly appreciate it. Just click the Facebook share button on this page.
18 Responses to “4 – Identify Your Core Values”
Leave a Reply
Rick Lelchuk
06. Feb, 2012
Gavin,
My wife and I just got Certified as Passion Test Facilitators and this article echoes many of the same principles taught in the course.
One of the secrets from The Passion Test is “when faced with a choice, decision or opportunity to choose in favor or your passions.” It is the same with your values, choose in favor of your values.
Another thing we say is that your higher being, God, the Universe, Unified Field, your big Kahuna (whatever you believe in) put you here for a reason and following your passions satisfies that reason. To go against your inner core is to go against your higher power. There can be no satisfaction nor fulfillment.
In administering The Passion Test we help people identify their top passion and assist them to keep them present in their lives. It is exciting work and we are thrilled to be part of it. You can see how your article so relates.
Thank you, Gavin, for your contribution.
In clarity and success,
RICK
pete chapman
07. Feb, 2012
Hi Gavin
your last few posts are full of great insight and wisdom. I remember when I first came across value centred business approaches and I have never looked back since.
Steven Covey, Tom Peters, Tony Robbins have all played a part in my corporate development and now that I am a home worker these principles are still embodied in my work,
Thank you for reminding me.
Best wishes
Pete
Holly
07. Feb, 2012
I probably haven’t spent enough time really making sure that I have a values list. although I know that I make decisions everyday that I don’t regret, but of course some that I do. I Just had an ahhah moment this morning.. I have a passion and wish to share it with others, when I shared some info this morning I was energized like I couldn’t believe… Worry about what others think of me is going to be one of my ‘values’ that I need to do away with! Great post, Gavin. I will be working on my values list!
Nile
08. Feb, 2012
Prioritizing what is most important to you and building a plan to integrate each aspect in your life in a way that not one is lacking is definitely not easy. It does take sitting down, thinking, and making a list. My thing is that when I go to conferences, I call my family each nite and let them know what has been going on, and ask about their day as well. It lets them stay involved as it is important to me that my family supports my passion.
Willena Flewelling
08. Feb, 2012
Every one of the items on your List of Values is something I’m working on right now! I’m having varying degrees of success, and am more developed in some areas than others, but we definitely share a similar list of values.
I love the clarity and simplicity in your post, Gavin. It’s DO-able!
Willena Flewelling
Buddy Hodges
08. Feb, 2012
Gavin,
Your valuable contributions on the web and in the TSA are evidence that you do practice what you preach. Thank you for all that you do.
My list of values in very similar to yours. I have to admit that my pursuit of freedom has hindered my family values, because I have chosen to take risks as an entrepreneur and network marketer. When I left the traditional career as a Professor for self-employment as a consultant, my first wife left me and moved my children far away.
One of my very favorite books is First Things First, by Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Stephen’s main theme is to “Keep the main thing the main thing.” His classic model of 4 quadrants is a helpful guide.
He says that the main difference between successful people is that successful people do important things even when they are not urgent, e.g., fire prevention vs. putting out fires. Exercise is important but not urgent, unless it is too late…
Pastor Sherry
10. Feb, 2012
Hi Gavin,
Great look at the values issue. Our choices often reflect our values, or lack thereof. They are our kind of “default” mode. So if we are intentional in figuring out what our bottom-line values are, and making those values what we want them to be, we will more often move in sync with them.
Araceli
11. Feb, 2012
You bring up a very good point. We are faced with decisions all the time that test our values and what’s really important to us. I recently experienced a “value” decision when I traveled for six days and was away from my family. My husband and son miss me very much when I’m gone and for some time I felt guilty and a bit annoyed at the whole process but I embraced these feelings and understood it’s ok to miss and be missed. It’s all part of the process, I appreciate and enjoy coming home now after finding my way through those feelings. Thanks for sharing
Steve Vernon
12. Feb, 2012
I think Joseph Campbell and Abraham (Abraham-Hicks) both put, in their own words, the very essence of what you have said here, and what I believe is at the very heart of most spiritual teachings — “Follow your bliss” (Joseph Campbell) and “There is nothing more important than that you feel good” (Abraham). ANY time we have any type of decision to make that will affect our direction (either momentarily, daily, or for a lifetime), we must check our inner (gut) feeling about it. If it doesn’t feel right in our very core, then it is not the right decision. When we listen to that small inner voice deep within ourselves, we are listening to our spiritual source which ALWAYS knows the right decision to make. It’s way to easy for that voice to be drowned out by all the outside pressures that seldom take us in the best direction. It’s like following the GPS in our car when someone who has lived in the area all of their life tells you a different direction to take that is much more efficient and will avoid all the traffic and stop lights. Our inner voice is that advisor that has been there all along and knows everything.
Tom Burt
13. Feb, 2012
Gavin,
I liked this post. Coincidently, I just finished watching the movie Courageous. Talk about VALUES!
There was a time in my life when, if I got that phone call from friends, I would have run out the door to party with the buddies. Now, however, I am a different person. I would choose home and family…..but the problem is my kids are 17 and 19, and I’m divorced from their mother. (imagine that) I didn’t have my priorities figured out until it was too late. Buried under constant alcohol consumption, my true personality and values were askew for decades.
Sobriety is the key to accessing the “real” person. One’s values will certainly change if influenced by chemicals.
Thanks for the great post! I look forward to more!
Sincerely,
Tom Burt
Shelley Alexander
15. Feb, 2012
Hi Gavin, Thanks for this insightful post! All the items on your list of values are important to me and I am working on trying to make sure that I am successful in sticking to them. Thanks for reminding us of what is important in life.
Gavin Mountford
16. Feb, 2012
Hey Shelly, sticking to them is a challenge isn’t it to begin with. But when you live by your core values every day, it very quickly becomes habit and automatic.
Then you don’t need to think about them… I’m a totally different person to how I was 5 years ago!
Martin Casper
15. Feb, 2012
Hello Gavin…
I have long been a proponent of core values. If we do not develop our won core values, how can we be viewed as authentic? Each person, as they mature must take an approach to sit down and decide for themselves…what is most important in my life…am I gong to be self-absorbed or am I going to put others first. How important is my family…my job…my country…my religion? If we develop those core values earlier than later, our life will be successful and fulfilled.
Thanks…Martin
Gavin Mountford
16. Feb, 2012
Well said Martin, great to see you here! How are you doing, and how are you finding TSA so far?
Martin Casper
16. Feb, 2012
Hello Gavin…and yes it is great to connect. I am really enjoying the TSA experience and the traffic to my blog is climbing. That is good, along with meeting other great people like yourself. Thanks!
Gary Young China Sourcing
19. Feb, 2012
Gavin,
Very nice read. Our core values are what is most important. Something I learned a long time ago really helps me. Certain things in our lives are priorities. Those can be arranged in certain orders based on the situation at hand. Others are values. Values cannot be arranged. They are always at the top of the list. In the first example, your family is your value and your friends are a priority. Family comes first.
Thanks for posting.
Laura Morris
11. Apr, 2012
Hi Gavin
Our core values definitely drive what we do every day. Our family comes first, always. In fact this last year we took the entire year off to take care of family matters of a serious nature. Our spiritual values are important to us, as is remaining in honesty and integrity in our business dealings. If a transaction on our team is going to hurt someone in any way, it is always discouraged. We have probably lost a lot of money that way, but we can sleep at night.
Pieter Britz from Ab Cuts
16. Apr, 2012
Hey Gavin Thanks for read. And yes Following your Values is important and I find myself Changing my order of values as my Life gets evolves, so to check what is most important for you regularly keeps me in check.
Thank Love the Blog.