I recall well situations when I have been asked early in my career in a job interview what my values are. Wow, I got stuck and two things that came to my mind were honesty and justice (…maybe the same for most of the Finnish people with the first one and with the second with peer lawyers…). More than a decade passed and I started to think about my values more profoundly in the crossroads of my life. Finally a big change for me was my coaching training that supported my growth as a professional where I did a value exercise to really find out what is important to me. Back then I had finished my career in in-house HR-roles and was about to start my own company. I wanted to work in a sustainable way so before anything I found out that quality of life and wellbeing are crucial for me as well as trust and freedom.
Why I am writing now about this is that I was thinking about my values last night again. It came to my mind that it might be useful to share things that I have found out to be important with values:
- It makes me feel easier and happier to work and live my life in a meaningful way when I live aligned with my values.
- If I feel conflicted I get back to my values and usually I find that one of my key values are threatened in one way or another.
- Values can also change – maybe not totally but in some way in different phases of life and that is why I feel it is worth re-thinking them especially if there is a bigger change going in my life.
These are my experiences and maybe you agree or disagree. For me it is also part of having courage and being authentic to share my thoughts about the things that I think might be useful for others – so here I go.