Identifying your key values: advice from “What Works”

The “Growth without Striving” chapter from What Works by Tara McMullin contains a recommended method for identifying which values are most important to you. Notes Identifying and defining our personal values is a vital step towards working out what’s meaningful and important to us. We may have had values imposed on us by our upbringing, or by the society and institutions we live and work in. McMullin suggests searching online for lists of values – it should be easy to find long lists of values to consider. You should narrow the list down to the values that are most meaningful to you. A value might be important to us and we don’t want to go against it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be on our shortlist. Then ask: “What do I do that demonstrates this value in my daily life?” If it really is one of your key values, you should be doing things that are aligned with it. Once you’ve identified your most important values, they can become a foundation for future visions and…