How Your Values Guide Your Life

Have you ever felt like you were doing everything right but somehow it still felt like you were going in the wrong direction? Or have you found yourself pouring your energy into something or someone without feeling your cup fill up in return? Or maybe you feel like you have all of the puzzle pieces in front of you, and yet they just won’t connect?

Same.

And if you’re like me, then it might be time to reevaluate your values and realign your life. I’ve come to realize this year just how much I’ve changed and how that has affected and altered the values I used to hold closest. I’ve reassessed my life plenty of times, but I have yet to take a good hard look at the core values that influence how I actually move through my life.

You see, core values are like your inner compass. They’re deeply held beliefs that guide your behavior and influence how you see yourself and the world around you. Your core values are like a guidepost or like your heart’s lighthouse, and they help you own your true identity and move through your life with intention.

But here’s the thing we don’t talk about often enough: Core values change because we change. We grow up. We grow out of people and places. We evolve. We see more of the world. We open up our minds. We unravel over time. We fall and we rise. But when we do, we hardly ever spend time reevaluating our core values too.

And that’s when it hit me.

If you’re still living your life with an old set of values, that’s where the disconnect is. This is why the pieces aren’t connecting. Because the values that felt so authentic and intrinsically linked no longer align. And that’s why where you put your time, your energy, and your faith feels off or out of place.

Whoa, right? And this doesn’t mean that you’ve been walking in the wrong direction or living your life all wrong, because that’s all a necessary part of our evolution. It’s in these places that we discovered what we value (and what we don’t). And now we pause to ask ourselves, Where am I headed? And why?

Now we pause to ask directions from ourselves. Because it’s when you identify these core values and beliefs that you can effectively draw up a map that takes you forward toward your larger purpose, and that’s where you reconnect to your heart, your true north.

So, where are you headed?