Why Core Values Are Key to Achieving Your Goals

The term core values sounds a lot like a hollow buzzword–something without much meaning. It appears frequently in business but the term is applicable across a broad array of situations in life. It’s hard to imagine a business—a powerful entity made up of many moving parts—ever having a central focus and core ideas the whole organization believes in. 

However, that’s not the case. Core values are the things a business believes to matter most which define the culture of the company. These enduring principles give every employee a clear understanding of what they intend to achieve. With a clear path for the company, everyone can be on the same page. But how does this work for the individual?

Why Should You Have Personal Core Values? 

Personal core values work the same for a person as for an industry. If businesses have stated missions which these ideas serve to keep the staff focused on, why shouldn’t individuals have the same guiding beliefs? What works on a large scale can be highly effective on an individual level, following the same principles.

Knowing your core values helps you to define yourself as a person. Everyone has deeply important beliefs that they hold closely but which they might not ever have thought of in this way. Putting into words specifically the deep-abiding principles which drive you as a person will help you to understand yourself more clearly. It gives you a stronger character overall.

With this, it becomes easier to achieve your goals. Does it matter what your personal goals are if you’re not aware of who you are? A clear understanding of the self opens the door to a clear understanding of the things you seek to achieve as a person.

How Do We Learn Our Core Values? 

Your personal core values are a reflection of the life you’ve lived and the life you want to live going forward. This can be expressed in two forms. On a broad scale, your central beliefs emerge from the society we grew up immersed in. This can be a society such as a country or a region of that country as specific as a single household. They can also develop along lines such as race and religion. These ideas, which often vary among groups, are a key way the cultures are driven to unified goals. For example, members of religion see their beliefs as leading to a more enlightened society.

On a personal level, your values are developed from the life experiences you live. Nobody has the same experiences even within the same subgroup. What you yourself experience determines your personal core values more than any other factor. This is also partially why our ideas often shift and change over time. New experiences force us out of our comfort zones while forcing us to evaluate exactly what we hold so deeply important in life.

But even with a knowledge of the factors which lead us to develop our core values, it can be difficult to know precisely what our personal core values are. That’s why the PDF “Core Values - Discover What Makes You Tick” is a useful tool. This guide from writers Jami Bertino and John Kalinowski, drawn from their book Happy Warrior: Empower Your S.E.L.F. In 30 Days gives you a clearer picture of what personal core values are and gives you the tools to figure out your core values. This will help you understand what you believe.

What Are Some Examples of Personal Core Values?

The ideas we hold dear enough to count as core values are as wide-ranging as the very idea of thought itself. Still, it’s important to think carefully about your values, how they can help you achieve your goals, and if there are any counter ideas that are worth considering.

For example, when it comes to our role in society, there are many ideas we bat around. Some people believe that altruism and charity—the values of service and sacrifice—are the highest virtues one should practice. Others reject these beliefs and go with independence and self-reliance, feeling that each person is responsible for their own fate. 

On a personal level, some people are driven to be hard workers and see traits relating to their professional lives like strength, willpower, and determination as central ideas they hold most strongly. For people whose focus is on self-care, traits like relaxation, comfort, and patience hold greater importance.

It’s important to stress that none of these values are good or bad in an ultimate sense. All these are ideas that matter deeply to different people. What counts is that these ideas are what help them to achieve their goals.

Core Values and Goals

The ultimate value of knowing your personal core values is that they can guide your decisions in life. You can use your core values to get a clear understanding of what you want out of life by determining what you hold most dearly. Those values can give you clear parameters for achieving your goals. Think about it: if you value family as a core value, you’ll seek to build the strongest family of your own that you can. If financial strength is a value you hold high, you’ll be driven to find the best investments and build a career that matters. 

No feeling can compare to the bliss you feel when you achieve your goals. Having core values is a vital tool to help you focus on the things you want out of life. 

Your success matters to us at Selfscription. Our mission is to help give you the tools to help yourself. In addition to the PDF on personal core values, we offer PDFs on subjects such as self coaching, the choices you make in life, and who you are as a person. We also offer life coaching for that extra bit of help everyone needs to reach their goals along with accessories like notebooks and candles. 

Everyone has goals they’re striving for. We believe with the right training and motivation, you can be the absolute best you to achieve what you want from the world. Browse our website today to begin your personal journey.