If you’re ever feeling a little lost or confused in life, understanding your personal values can be the key to unlocking clarity and success. Personality value is the thing that truly defines us. Our internal guidance system of what matters most to us.
It’s so important to learn about our values. It can guide us on how to make decisions, our relationships, and even in our careers. All of us have slightly different values, ranging from achievement to tolerance and everything in between.
Learning about these could help you understand yourself a lot better and feel confident that you’re making the right move, no matter the situation.
If you’re finding it difficult to figure out your personal values, start exploring 20 examples as an excellent starting point. Who knows? This could turn out to be a brilliant decision.
20 Personal Values Examples That’ll Help You Discover Your Own
1. Achievement/Success:
Achieving success or accomplishing goals is an important personality value for many people as it allows them to feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Personal examples of successful values could include setting realistic expectations for yourself or challenging yourself to reach higher standards.
2. Adventure/Novelty Seeking:
If the thought of exploring something new excites you, then adventure/novelty seeking may be an essential value for you. For example, learning new skills or developing existing ones could also be a way to challenge yourself while discovering something new about yourself each time.
3. Authenticity/Integrity:
Living with integrity means doing the right thing even when it’s difficult. Authenticity/Integrity is a key value that guides us in staying true to ourselves no matter the situation.
Examples could include being honest about your emotions without allowing them to control you and speaking up when something doesn’t feel right.
4. Balance/Harmony:
Finding balance doesn’t necessarily mean doing everything perfectly at once. Basically, it means knowing when certain parts of your life need more attention than others (like schoolwork during the midterm season).
Taking care of ourselves both mentally and physically leads us closer to harmony within ourselves as individuals, as well as balancing tasks and emotions.
5. Compassion/Empathy:
Being compassionate means having the ability to understand someone else’s feelings, while empathy involves having the capacity to empathize with them regardless of whether we share similar experiences or not. Kindness is an example of offering help without expecting anything in return.
6. Gratitude/Appreciation:
Showing gratitude is a great way to thank those who help us, make the world around us better, or reach their goals. After all, the little things that count, like holding open a door for someone sometimes and just saying “thank you,” goes an incredibly long way.
7. Independence:
Independence is the ability to think for yourself and make decisions without relying on others. A great way to foster this value is by learning how to manage your finances so that it doesn’t become a source of stress.
It involves taking responsibility for your own thoughts and actions. If something happens that isn’t in line with your values, don’t blame someone else for it.
8. Self-Respect:
Self-respect is about respecting yourself and having faith in your abilities. It involves setting boundaries for yourself that ensure you maintain a positive self-image. This means not letting anyone take advantage of or belittle you in any way.
9. Openness/Flexibility:
Being open-minded and flexible is important when encountering unexpected situations or different points of view. To practice these values, one should be willing to listen to other people’s ideas before forming their own opinion while also considering potential solutions outside the box.
10. Responsibility:
Responsibility means taking ownership of one’s actions or decisions, even if they don’t turn out as expected. A great way to practice this value is by setting goals for yourself, such as reaching an academic milestone or completing a project within a certain timescale, then following through on them.
11. Spirituality:
Spirituality explores the connection between a person’s inner world (mindset) and outer world (environment). The goal is to develop a greater understanding and compassion for others by connecting with your core beliefs while reflecting on the world around you.
12. Work Ethic:
Work ethic involves having an attitude of hard work, discipline, and perseverance when tackling projects or tasks. This means having a commitment to excellence no matter how tough things get.
13. Positivity:
It is essential to focus on the positive things in life instead of dwelling on the negative. Being positive can give you a sense of hope and motivation which can lead to increased productivity.
Practicing mindfulness or meditation can also help to cultivate positivity by calming the mind and viewing situations from a more neutral perspective.
14. Loyalty:
Loyalty is an unyielding commitment that one has for another person or a cause. This value is key for developing strong relationships with people close to you as it shows that you will stand by them through thick and thin.
15. Forgiveness:
Forgiveness is essential for healing emotionally after experiencing hurtful events or relationships that have gone awry. While it may not be easy at first, it allows us to move past unpleasant situations without carrying resentment or anger towards others or ourselves.
16. Humility:
Building humility starts by accepting that we don’t know it all and having the courage to learn from our own missteps and those made by others. This helps us become more evolved versions of ourselves.
17. Trustworthiness:
Trustworthiness involves showing respect for yourself and others by communicating honestly and keeping promises when given. It embodies reliability, dependability, responsibility, and integrity, which are essential for building strong relationships and achieving success.
18. Frugality:
Frugality is the practice of being thrifty, economical, and resourceful in using resources such as money or time. This value encourages us to be mindful of our spending habits and plan for the future.
19. Altruism:
Altruism is a value that suggests an individual cares about the well-being of others before themselves. This can be seen through acts such as volunteering time and effort or donating money to charitable causes.
20. Tolerance:
Tolerance encourages understanding and acceptance rather than criticism or judgment. It allows room for different ages, gender identities, races, religions, and sexual orientations without passing quick judgments.
How to Find Your Personality Values?
Developing a clear understanding of your personality values helps you make decisions in line with your own beliefs and interests. Knowing what is important to you enables you to shape your life in ways that create meaningful experiences and foster greater contentment.
1. Identifying Important Experiences from the Past:
To find your personal values, you must look back at significant experiences from your past that had an impact on you. These could include formative moments of growth or adversity that shaped your beliefs or outlook on life.
Consider times when you felt a deep sense of connection to yourself or others or overcame something challenging. Reflect on what those experiences meant to you and note any common threads among them. Doing this will help uncover the values that have shaped who you are today.
2. Considering Your Current Goals and Motivation:
Taking a look at your current goals can also be revealing in terms of understanding your values. Ask yourself why those particular goals matter to you and which values they align with.
Consider what motivates you when working towards these objectives: is it money, recognition, autonomy, or creativity? Taking inventory of why certain things matter to us unlocks insight into our personal values system.
3. Analyzing Your Behaviors and Beliefs:
Examining how we act on a day-to-day basis can also yield useful information about what’s important to us as individuals. Pay attention to patterns in how you spend your time and which activities bring you joy or satisfaction versus stress or frustration.
Notice which messages resonate with you most when listening to podcasts or reading articles. These could indicate core beliefs or principles that guide your behavior in subtle ways.
4. Reviewing How You Spend Time, Money, and Energy:
Reflecting on how you use resources such as time, money, and energy can be helpful in identifying personal values too. After all, these are finite resources so where they go speaks volumes about our priorities in life.
Think about what activities bring out the best version of yourself: do they require a lot of financial investment or minimal effort? This exercise helps determine which areas deserve more focus going forward since they’re likely aligned with our true desires for happiness and fulfillment over anything else.
5. Reflecting on What Matters Most to You:
Ultimately all roads point back to one question: What matters most to You? When making decisions, big or small, ask yourself if this choice fits within the framework of your core values system.
If not, reconsider whether it’s worth pursuing, given its potential impact on your overall well-being. Reassessing this regularly will ensure one stays grounded in their unique set of guiding principles. Thus, leading to greater authenticity & satisfaction down life’s path.
Uncover Your Core Values and Live an Authentic Life with Greater Purpose
Your personality value is the building blocks of your life as they define who you authentically are and what matters most to you. Clarity around them gives you focus, purpose, and direction and helps ensure that your decisions align with what’s truly important to you.
Having a set of core values gives your life meaning and direction, helping you make decisions that honor who you are. Knowing what matters most to us allows us to build meaningful relationships, pursue ambitious goals, and design our lives true to ourselves so we can reach for the stars.
With the 20 personal values in hand, it’s time to discover what you value most. Carve out some ‘me’ time as you reflect on what truly matters in life because only then will you know how best to live yours.
