What do you care about? Do you really know?Many of us have a vague notion of what we hold important but have you ever thought of making a list, pinpointing the very things that make life worth living for you and that you stand for? A list of your values?Our values are individual to each of us and are at the core of who we are.They act as a subconscious compass of sorts, guiding and informing our decisions, actions and reactions.Coaching philosophy agrees that being consciously aware of our values (and deliberately living by them!) can have far-reaching benefits to our levels of achievement, feelings of success and sense of well-being, not to mention helping motivate us (see last week). So knowing what they are might be pretty useful, no?We can begin eliciting our values by asking ourselves:l What is important to me?l What words most describe who I am in the world?l What do I feel strongly about? And get happy about?l What would I be prepared to die for? (a bit dramatic perhaps, but will show you what’s important!)If you’ve never done this before, consider creating a list. Come up with at least 20 or so ...Other ways to recognise your values: which social causes particularly tug your heartstrings?Which articles, storylines or film themes resonate most with you?What gets you worked up in conversation, boils your blood or is something you react strongly to?All these are likely linked to one or more of your values.Important note: values are not ‘things’, or as someone described them, “you cannot put them in a wheelbarrow”.Looking at your list, if you have ‘things’ on there, ask yourself: what is that thing giving me? What do I get from it?A good example is money. Many might say ‘money’ is important to them.But money isn’t a value — in reality, money is just paper and ink.The value comes from what money means to them and what they get from it.It could mean: security, independence, respect, freedom, comfort, contribution … different things to different people.Look at your list, wherever you have ‘things’, be it ‘a nice house’ or even ‘my family’, instead boil down what that represents to you and what you value about it most.Check your list. Is it exhaustive? At this stage with a coaching client I would get them to systematically rank their values in order of importance, revealing a top value or ‘driving value’ and a hierarchy of their values in priority order.What does it feel like, seeing this list of what you stand for? Notice how these underlying motivators have affected your actions and decisions in the past.It’s easy to imagine how aligning our efforts to these standards we hold as important can naturally create a great sense of self-respect and promote positive self-esteem.Decisions become easier weighing up their impact against our moral compass.By deliberately synchronising our goals with our values, we will be driven by our very sense of self to fulfill them, and the satisfaction in doing so will be huge.Conversely, if our goals and actions contradict or impinge on our values there is little likelihood we will achieve them or will find the expected fulfillment in their results.Often, perceived ‘issues’, stumbling blocks, hindrances to successfully achieving our goals, procrastination or internal negative reactions, can be due to some conflict with our values.Is there something that you’re doing that is in conflict with your values?If you are experiencing negative reactions to events or circumstances this might indicate an area where your values are being compromised.Looking at your life currently, is there something that you’re missing — a value that you are not honouring?This could be the cause of an unhappiness in your life, a feeling of emptiness or unfulfillment.What can you do to introduce more of that value into your daily existence, beginning now?Even our values themselves might be in conflict with each other. Imagine someone with a high value of ‘adventure’, closely followed by a value of ‘security’.It’s understandable this person may experience some unease or difficulty making certain decisions and following through on particular actions, torn between respecting these two aspects of themself.After all, most of these values we have been operating under were somewhat thrust upon us, an accumulation of learning from our influences growing up and maturing.However, it is possible, once we know our values, to start tweaking our list and refining our own set of priorities based on what will best serve us, now that we know better.Imagine for a moment the empowerment of operating from a clear list of values that work in harmony together, designed and prioritised by you to support you in your highest goals, to be the very best you can and show up in this world as you truly want to.Sounds pretty great, and why not? Successful companies do it all the time.They might call it their code of conduct, their mission or simply, their company values. Employees of such a company know what they are striving for as a whole, what is expected of them in their approach and in turn what they can expect from others.Inconsistencies are easily spotted and, with willingness, corrected.When they get it right, these are the kind of companies we all want to do business with — they do what they say on the label and there is cohesion in the service they provide.Nobody is left floundering, unsure of their purpose. This same trait is recognisable in certain individuals, usually leaders we admire and those we look up to for that special quality we call … integrity.That is how we describe people who know their values and live by them. And that can be any of us, with awareness, attention and action in our best direction.Unfortunately it doesn’t stop with values.Tethered to our values are our individual criteria for achieving them, the ‘rules’ of how we manifest them … these rules are our beliefs. Next week we’ll be examining these beliefs and the next steps to achieving our super-selves!Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner.For further information telephone 705-7488 or visit www.juliapittcoaching.co.