What is the key to a meaningful life? Is it money or happiness? Or something else?
Today, we’re exploring Core Values. After reading this you’ll know:
- What they are
- Why you need them
- And how to use them to live a meaningful life.
Over the past 25 years, I’ve spent thousands of dollars doing dozens of courses, reading hundreds of books, working with paying clients and experimenting in my own life to find simple and powerful ways to live a meaningful life.
From all of this, I’ve concluded that living true to your values is the simplest and most powerful way to do this.
What are Core Values?
How do you choose the perfect partner? Do you prefer brains, beauty or being funny?
How do you choose the perfect job or career? Is it the pay, the people or the tasks you perform?
And how do you choose what videos or TV shows to watch? Do you go for education, entertainment or the extraordinary?
Your values are the level of importance you place on something. And they become the criteria you use to make decisions – the big decisions like finding the perfect partner and the everyday ones like choosing what clothes to wear.
Other words or synonyms for values include: worth, principles, ethics, morals, standards, criteria
Why do you need core values?
What’s for dinner? And how do you choose what food to eat?
Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.’
When you value good health and you choose a salad for dinner, you feel good about your choice and about yourself.
But, if you value good health and you choose a burger, then you may feel good while you’re eating it. But, the next morning you might feel bad in the tummy, bad about your choice and bad about yourself.
Your values help you make decisions. And as Lincoln suggested, the more good decisions you make the better you’ll feel about yourself.
What’s the difference between a good decision and a bad decision?
A good decision is one that aligns with and supports your values – the things you say are important to you.
How do you use core values to live a meaningful life?
On YouTube, Mark Rober spent months planning and a full week building a pool full of Jello? Why did he do that?
NASA spent billions of dollars and a decade of effort to put a man on the moon. Why did they do that?
Athletes train for ten years to compete at the Olympics even though they know they might fail. Why do they do that?
We take on mighty things because they are important to us. And that’s because they express our values. The effort makes us feel good because it is meaningful.
And it’s meaningful because it reflects our values – the things that we say are important to us. Can you see the way they reinforce each other?
To live a meaningful life, you don’t need to aspire to grand plans. You can. But you don’t have to.
What you do need to do is take actions about things and in ways that satisfy you. It’s WHAT you do and HOW you approach them.
If you value family, spend quality time with your family. If you value creativity, create something every day. And if you value health, move your body today.
More on How to Live Through Your Core Values
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