subject: What Are Your Values And Beliefs? [print this page] By discovering your core values you will gain a valuable understanding of just who you are and what makes you tick - I feel this is a very important aspect of personal growth. This can be further enhanced by asking yourself - "what new values would be useful to me at this time in my life - to enable me to get where I want to go?" By discovering your values you can begin to resolve the hidden conflicts in your life, remove stress and give yourself more direction.
Beliefs are closely linked to values, except beliefs can be wrong or erroneous. We often have negative beliefs about ourselves from childhood or schooling, however, as you set out your values and begin to live them, you'll see that beliefs can be changed.
I believe that we all have core values; whether we know it or not. When these values are compromised we tend to feel bad and when we are living our lives in-line with those values we tend to feel more comfortable and more in control. We all have secondary values too, values that can be appropriate for a certain amount of time, ones that we can bring to the fore as required as the events in our lives unfold. For example; you may want to increase your courage as you start a new job - or you may want to promote your value of "availability" when you have a young family.
Eliciting your values is not easy, but it is beneficial; remember values are ways of being that mean something important to you. When you know what your values are (and they are in order of importance) decision making becomes far easier - as you just follow your values.
In my experience it is very useful to become the type of person who moves towards solutions rather than away from problems, because often the quickest way to find a solution is just to charge right at it, rather than pussy-footing around getting all anxious and fretful. Once your unconscious mind can see your clear list of values and can recognise that achieving these will be good for you, somehow, it just takes you forward. Of course, there will be ups and downs, but at least you will have a map reminding you of what is important to you.
It takes a while to pull all of your values together and think about what they mean to you, however, it is time well spent and the rewards can be very high.
