At a certain stage in life, everyone asks himself questions: who am I, where am I going, why am I going? But not everyone can find answers. This article will help you identify your true values and explain how you can use them to find yourself.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “values”? “Material goods,” you might say, and you will be right, but only in part. These are also stable important concepts that guide us when making decisions, “guiding stars” that set the direction on the path from “bad” to “good” and suggest what will bring joy and what will drive into melancholy.
Following other people’s values often leads to dissatisfaction with one’s own life. Internal value conflicts can lead to dissatisfaction with oneself, blues, and in difficult cases – to depressive or addictive states.
In professional life, the internal conflict of one’s own values and the values of the company leads to demotivation and rapid burnout.
Without realizing your own values, it is difficult to set goals for yourself and determine the steps to achieve them. There is no goal – there is no motivation, a resource that would inspire and add joy.
One of the most common examples of following other people’s values is the choice of a profession for a child by parents.
One of the most common examples of following other people’s values is the choice by parents of a profession for their child. Imagine 17-year-old Masha, who literally lives by drawing and could create beautiful paintings, interior design or dress models, but enters the faculty of economics because her parents decided so. Drawing for the next five years was put aside, she studied the basics of foreign economic activity, began working as a cashier in a bank and withered before her eyes. At 30, she heads the department. She has a good salary, an excellent social package and eternal longing in her eyes. She is looking for herself, goes to trainings, works with a psychologist and does not understand what is wrong with her.
It would seem that the answer is simple: you need to return to the starting point and start all over again. But it seems to many that at the age of 30 it is too late to start from scratch.
That is why it is so important to understand how you see your future life: in a year, five or ten years. Are you ready to wake up every morning and go to a job that doesn’t inspire you, or are you willing to dedicate yourself to a cause that inspires you?
FIND YOUR TRUE VALUES
Helping you get on the path to yourself two techniques.
At first, take some time for yourself and describe your ideal day in a calm environment. What are you doing, who do you see around? Is there time for yourself, family and hobbies? How is time distributed between different areas of life?
Read the resulting text and pay attention to the values that you mention most often (family, development, health, safety, work, finances). Write them down and prioritize. What would your life be like if you lost your most important value?
What would your life be like if it had only this value? What are you willing to give up and what are you not? This is how you learn about your core values.
The described ideal picture will become the very beacon to which you will swim or run.
SecondlyIf you find yourself in a professional impasse, it’s time to dream. Take a piece of paper and describe your dream job. Who surrounds you? What kind of people inspire you? What do you do? What talents, abilities, skills and abilities do you have, what do you believe in? What beliefs are limiting you right now? How can they be transformed? Who are you in your ideal picture of the world, what do you live for?
The described ideal picture will become the very beacon to which you will swim or run. Think over a strategy for moving towards an ideal life, determine the time frame and outline an action plan for the next three months. Swim and don’t forget to check your course.
About the Developer
Oksana Kravets, career coach. Read more on her .