Living Your Truth: Redefining Your Core Values
I know! You’ve done a million exercises to get clear on your values, you know what they are, and you want to keep moving forward. I get it. But just hear me out for a sec.
Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
Acting and moving from your core values is acting and moving from your truth, from your soul. And there’s nothing that will bring you closer to your purpose than that. Living your purpose is living your truth. The farther away we’re living from that truth, the harder it’ll be to hear our soul and remember our purpose.
But let me ask you this, are you acting and moving from your truth? Being clear on your values doesn’t mean they’re coming from your truth.
It’s so easy to pick up a few values from a list and go “Yeah, this is what I value in life, 100%”.
But do you?
Do you know why you want to live by those values?
Have you ever wondered if they could be part of some societal or familial conditioning? Part of some wounds shaping what you believe to be true?
Do you know what each of them means and represents to you?
We pick up values from our environment as easily as we pick up beliefs. But we never question them.
We think we’re in alignment with our values until we realise that they’re not what we value at all.
Here’s a personal example. Loyalty has always been one of my core values, but what I understood by loyalty was being completely conditioned by what society tells us. Being loyal to another person, always to an outside source. This has kept me stuck in patterns of people-pleasing for the longest time. After all, everything that’s not being loyal to someone else is seen as selfish. Now loyalty keeps being one of my core values, but the meaning has changed. Now I’m loyal to myself and what I believe in, loyal to my truth and my soul. And to anyone who has my highest good in mind.
Now it’s your turn. Below you’ll find an exercise that I love and adore, and that has helped me get to the truth of my core values. Give it a go.
Choose a time in your day when you have at least 30 minutes to be with yourself, with no interruptions, and answer these questions:
What are your values right now? Pick the most important ones for you at this moment, 3 to 5. What do each of them mean and represent to you? If you can’t explain them, we’ve got a problem - start questioning those first.
Look at your life, what are you spending your free time on? And your money? Make a list of 3 to 5 values that reflect your life at this moment.
What type of life does your soul crave? What do you desire the most? And what would someone who’s living that life value? Approach this question from your heart and soul, not from what your ego wants.
BONUS: Explain each of the values you listed in the third point, and write down what they mean and why they’re important to you.
The 1st point will tell you what you believe your values are.
The 2nd point will tell you what you’re valuing in life right now (maybe unconsciously).
And the 3rd point will tell you the values to nurture and cultivate moving forward. These are your ideal values.
The first one says - I’m preaching this.
The second one says - I’m living this.
And the third one says - My soul wants this. This is my truth.
We want to be real honest with points 1 and 2 and start closing the gap to point 3. This is your ultimate life vision, the more you embody those values, the closer you’ll be to that version of you, to your truth and to your purpose.
Pair up this exercise with the initial questions if you want to go deeper and enjoy the practice! 🧡