{"id":51893,"date":"2021-10-20T12:42:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=51893"},"modified":"2021-10-21T12:57:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T16:57:21","slug":"clarifying-your-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/clarifying-your-values\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Clarifying Your Values"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is clarifying your values important? What is the problem with having too many values? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarifying your values will ensure you have a blueprint to serve as a guide when taking risks and making tough decisions<\/a>. You should settle on just two values. It will be difficult for you to commit when you have too many values. They will only become meaningless feel-good words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn more about the importance of having clear personal values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Choosing & Clarifying Your Values<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, your first step should be to make sure that you\u2019ve clarified your own <\/em>values\u2014these will be your guide in making tough decisions, taking risks, and showing your team how to face vulnerability. When choosing and clarifying your values, consider what your innermost self holds most important in life. Your values should be so defined and clear that acting in line with them doesn\u2019t feel like a conscious choice\u2014they\u2019re simply who you are. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tricky part of choosing and clarifying your values is that you need to narrow down to just two core values<\/em>. If you have too many values, they become meaningless feel-good words, rather than principles that guide your behaviors and intent, and that fuel your ability to commit to things you hold important.<\/strong> For example, \u201cfamily\u201d may not be one of your two values, but \u201cconnection\u201d is. Therefore, connection is at the center of how you make decisions about and within your family. Because possible values are so varied\u2014understanding, wealth, gratitude, recognition, career, joy, diversity, growth\u2014it might be easiest for you to first cut down to ten values that you feel are important, and then narrow down to two from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: there are many \u201cvalue lists\u201d online that can help you with exploring the full range of possible values and finding those that you identify with most.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be careful to choose values that you truly<\/em> identify with. Don\u2019t choose your values<\/a> based on who other people want you to be (\u201cYou should work on your patience\u201d), or choose values that have been assigned to you (\u201cI taught you that family is the most important thing\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After clarifying your values, make sure you are regularly practicing them. To help with this, you can make a set of guidelines for each of your values. This is a rubric that you can check in with occasionally, to make sure that you are acting with integrity<\/a> and that your actions represent who you really are<\/a>. For each value, think: <\/p>\n\n\n\n