4 February 2022 – In my coaching practice, I’ve found it supremely helpful to guide my clients to discover and/or articulate their values even before we dive in to any issue. Values are the true north of our behaviours. They are the litmus test to how coherent our actions are to our beliefs – we feel rested and at peace when what we do are in line with our values and we feel strangely conflicted and sometimes inexplicably stressed when our values and actions are not in sync.
Our core values are underlying traits that trigger us to react instinctively to situations. We feel a natural aversion to people who act opposed to these values and we intuitively steer towards people and circumstances that hold these characteristics true. Put simply, your core values are what you adhere to even when no one is watching.
Here’s my list of values that I offer my clients. They are deliberately overwhelming in number. This is to cause my clients to get in touch with what really matters to them so that they ruthlessly cut out what doesn’t resonate with them wholeheartedly.
The next thing I do is to talk about the selected values to help my clients decipher if those are truly what is irreplaceable for them. Very often, after searching themselves, clients would rethink their first draft and examine more deeply the values that truly represent them.
Have a go at it!