What are personal values?
Personal values are the qualities of life that matter most to you. To get a sense of what your values might be, ask yourself the following questions:
- What matters most to me right now?
- What doesn’t matter to me at all?
- What qualities would I like to develop in myself?
- What do I appreciate most about my life?
- What do I want to see more of in the world?
- When I’m looking back on this season someday, what do I want to remember about my choices?
- How do I want others (my child, partner, extended family, friends, co-workers, etc.) to experience me?
- When my little one is grown and reflecting on their childhood, how would I hope they’d describe me?
- What qualities do I hope to model for my kiddo?
- What do I stand for as a person on this planet?
Helpful hint: there’s no right or wrong answers. Values are like ice cream flavors — you might love chocolate chip cookie dough and your best friend might be into mint chip. Each of us will have our own preferences and that’s a-okay.
Here’s a giant list of values to consider:
- Abundance
- Acceptance
- Accountability
- Achievement
- Adaptability
- Adventure
- Affection
- Ambition
- Appreciation
- Assertiveness
- Authenticity
- Autonomy
- Balance
- Beauty
- Calm
- Challenge
- Clarity
- Collaboration
- Commitment
- Communication
- Community
- Compassion
- Competence
- Compromise
- Connection
- Contentment
- Contribution
- Cooperation
- Courage
- Creativity
- Culture
- Curiosity
- Determination
- Discipline
- Diversity
- Drive
- Ease
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Empathy
- Empowerment
- Encouragement
- Engagement
- Enjoyment
- Equality
- Excellence
- Excitement
- Fairness
- Fitness
- Flexibility
- Flow
- Freedom
- Friendliness
- Friendship
- Forgiveness
- Fun
- Generosity
- Gentleness
- Gratitude
- Growth
- Healing
- Health
- Honesty
- Humility
- Humor
- Independence
- Integration
- Integrity
- Intentionality
- Intimacy
- Joy
- Justice
- Kindness
- Leadership
- Laughter
- Love
- Loyalty
- Mindfulness
- Minimalism
- Order
- Openness
- Optimism
- Patience
- Peace
- Perseverance
- Playfulness
- Pleasure
- Preparedness
- Presence
- Professionalism
- Purpose
- Quality
- Reciprocity
- Reliability
- Resilience
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Rhythm
- Romance
- Safety
- Security
- Self-Care
- Service
- Simplicity
- Sincerity
- Spirituality
- Strength
- Support
- Sustainability
- Teamwork
- Time
- Trust
- Understanding
- Wellness
- Wisdom
Chances are you’ll resonate with many of these values. Since you can’t move in every direction at once, it can be helpful to narrow it down to 3-5 values at a time. Clarifying and prioritizing your personal values makes it much easier to move towards what matters most to you.
So you have a good idea of your personal values… now what?
Gaining clarity on your personal values is just one step to designing a life you love. Don’t forget the next step — putting them into action.
If that feels like a challenge right now, you’re not alone. Sometimes, the life we’re actually living looks very different from the life we aspire to. As a new parent, you may be overwhelmed with all of the changes that come with pregnancy, the postpartum year, or work after baby. Maybe you’re even experiencing a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder.
Whatever the case, if life feels out of alignment with your values and you don’t know how to get back on track, I’d be happy to help. Reach out for a free virtual consultation to see if therapy is right for you.
