What are your three top values? Think about it. Core values are the cornerstone of well-being. Everything we do and the decisions we make, our viewpoints all of it are driven by what we value most in life. But if we don’t know what we value most in life, then how can we be living according to our core principles?

It sounds so obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this stumps people. So let’s dig in a little bit. You might think about core values as a kind of compass, a kind of guiding principle that leads us in a direction that improves our well-being and contributes positively to the world around us. There are so many and they’re fluid, they’re not locked in stone and they’re also contextualized. But when we talk about our top three, we’re talking about the ones that show up regularly in our lives that really are guiding us currently, as you consider this exercise now. So again, I ask you what are your top three core values? Go ahead and write them down and then define what they mean to you and why they are important.

Consider how they show up in your life. Are they reflected in all the things you do? Do you see them being honored in your work, in your relationships, in your family, in the way you approach situations. How do your values show up in your life right now? When you were fully honoring this value, what would it look like in conversations? What would it sound like? What would you be saying, for instance, if your core value was openness?

In a conversation, it would look like you listening to other points of view. If you had a core value that was clarity, you might be asking questions or you might be really articulating and using words that describe what you really mean to say. So the thing about values is we don’t ever need to say what they are to other people, but rather live by the values so that they will see what they are, if that makes sense. So, when you are fully honoring this value, what would others see that demonstrates that this is what you value? What actions would you be taking?

So that might be, if a service was one of your values, people would see you volunteering, or maybe people would see you tutoring. If your core value was learning, they’d see you taking extra courses or learning a new language or reading. So this is about actions speak louder than words, right Meaning you don’t have to tell somebody. It’s your value. If you’re living your value, it will be clear in your world. And now ask yourself, when you’re fully connected to this value of yours, what beliefs do you have about yourself, in the world or the people in it? How does it fuel everything you do?

If confidence is a value and I believe that I am confident then I show up in a way that fulfills that. If you truly value something, it’s not as hard as it seems to step into it because it comes from you. But again, if we don’t know what our values are, how can we honor them? Think about something that you do and why it’s important to you, and in there you may very well find a value. Think about some of the things that you really most love to do.

Taking the time to really figure out what your core values are is an invaluable experience that will enrich your life. I promise you. It’ll make decision making easier. It will help guide you towards living a meaningful life that is connected to who you want to be. I hope you guys found this exercise helpful and I hope that you will continue to develop and expand and explore your deep values and live into them every day and everything you do.

This article was originally published on TheatreArtLife.com. Written by TheatreArtLife Collaborator, Lisa Hopkins of Wide Open Stages.

Anna Robb

All around the world there are people working in arts and entertainment. They are not in the industry for the money, the fame or the work/life balance. They are there through a sheer driving force; The need to create. From this community, TheatreArtLife was born.
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