I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of having a clear vision of values and purpose lately. Mainly because I’ve been seeing a coach and training as a coach too. The more I delve into things like core values and life purpose the more I see the necessity of being clear on what they are.
They form the necessary foundation for living a fulfilled life. Without them we are building on sand, just waiting for the next gust of wind to come and blow it all to shit. The next opinion, calamity, pandemic or whatever else it may be.
This is all part of knowing ourselves fully. It’s not always easy to do. The alternative is to go with whatever the mainstream is pushing at the time. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. In any case, it will mean we’ll live an accidental life.
Pouring The Founation
Unearthing your core values is not rocket science. It’s highly likely you already know them already, albeit unconsciously. The main thing to realise here is that it is not difficult to do or at least get started on. It can take a while to really solidify the foundation, but you can pour it today quite easily.
Here are some ways you can get started. I would suggest doing all three. Maybe even, multiple times. And remember knowing them is one thing, having the courage to live and embody them is something totally different. That’s where option three becomes even more important, but maybe I’m biased.
Option One
- Print out this list of potential core values
- Rate each one with one of three options. V = Very important, Q = Quite important, N = Not so important;
- Now further refine the very important values in a list of 3-5 values.
Option Two
Reflect on your life over a period of time. What does your unique life experience highlight in terms of core values? Maybe you’ve been locked up (literally in prison or hypothetically in your mind) so the value of freedom is high on your list. Maybe you crave deep and meaningful relationships with others and the world around you, so the value of connection is a high priority for you. Maybe you’re an artist and it’s the value of creativity you want to bring to the world or maybe you’re an explorer and it’s the sense of adventure that makes life worth living.
There are no right or wrong answers. Values and how we prioritise them can and likely will change over time, depending on the phase of life we are currently in.
Option Three
Work with a coach. This can help you find your core values very easily and it can help deeply refine/reinforce those you may already know about. It can also help you move toward living in alignment with what they are. There’s not much use in knowing what you want to stand for and then living in a way that is completely out of sync with that.
Did I mention I’m training as a professional coach and will be taking on clients as part of that training? Contact me here for the possibility to get coached, pretty much for free, for 6 weeks.
Purpose / Calling
The really great thing about knowing your core values is that they are an essential ingredient in crafting your life purpose/calling/mission (insert whatever lingo you like to use here).
There can be a lot of ambivalence around such a topic so let me explain what I mean when I talk about purpose. After years of searching for mine, I honestly believe it is, one hundred percent, a possibility for everyone to find and be clear about. I’m also pretty sure, it’s probably not what we might think it is. Here’s my take in a nutshell:
Your Purpose Is To Be Yourself.
To BE yourself you must know yourself FULLY.
To KNOW yourself you must dig deep and at a minimum know what it is you stand for.
To know ourselves fully is a lifelong journey (at least that is how I see it now). We can at least begin by knowing what we stand for right here and now. Then, when we have that box checked and we’ve honed our unique gifts, talents and abilities, we can combine them all and then give them away. This is perhaps the most important point of the whole thing.
It is never about us alone. It is always about what we can give to others and the world we are inextricably connected with.
What can I say, this stuff is real. It may take some courage and effort to uncover and much more to live by what you discover. With all the uncertainty, craziness and doubt in the world today, now is as good a time as any to figure out what it is we stand for. Individually and collectively. Otherwise, we will continue to be at the mercy of someone else’s agenda.
BEING yourself
To top it all off, this is only half the story of who we are. As I’ve mentioned before, our purpose is to BE. BEING itself is the real treasure of life. Discovering our purpose is akin to finding the unique keys we hold in order to plug into this vast untapped reservoir of BEING. The more we explore ourselves the more keys we can find, the richer and more multi-dimensional our lives can become. Now, that sounds like an adventure worth having.
‘Being’ is where it’s at, it is the core of all life and who we are. To delve into it and explore it fully is the essence of spirituality. The game we’re playing here on earth cannot be played fully without plugging into this dimension of our existence. There are also many levels to who we are and this thing we call life. For me, that’ is where this adventure get’s really exciting.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you’re interested in learning more about what coaching can do for you, contact me here.
‘In matters of style swim with the current, in matters of principle stand like a rock’ – Thomas Jefferson