Have you ever felt as though something is off-balance, misaligned, and not quite right?
If you are riding a bicycle and the steering starts to pull to the left or right, you feel it. You know the bike isn’t riding straight as you possibly overcompensate when you steer. It means you need to work harder from your shoulders and core muscles to keep pedalling the bicycle in the direction you want to go! The likelihood is, you know that it needs to get fixed and might continue to use the bike until it is at a point of not being able to cycle straight at all. You’re physically as well as mentally pretty sore from keeping it on track!
As humans, when our core values and beliefs are out of sync, we too start to feel tired, out of sorts, and know there is something missing. When someone is working and living in an environment that is constantly challenging their core values and beliefs to their edge of comfort, they too get worn down and can lose direction.
Do you ever feel that knot in your stomach or sudden heat in your body as your pulse races a little quicker? It could be, one of your core values or beliefs is being challenged or questioned.
This is a theme coming through conversations at the moment with clients who are questioning their current career choice and the way their work and life fit together. Identifying your core values and beliefs, ranking them in priority, selecting your non-negotiables in that list, can help you understand what is really important to you in the way you are who you are. For example, if someone is working in an environment with a ‘say do gap’, where leaders and peers say one thing and do another, and their core values are trust and integrity this will create a rub for them and an uneasiness as they are in conflict.
By identifying what is important to you, you can start to see how you live in alignment with your core values and beliefs. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, uses a great list to get you started in reflecting on your core values.
Here you go:
- Authenticity
- Achievement
- Adventure
- Authority
- Autonomy
- Balance
- Beauty
- Boldness
- Compassion
- Challenge
- Citizenship
- Community
- Competency
- Contribution
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Determination
- Fairness
- Faith
- Fame
- Friendships
- Fun
- Growth
- Happiness
- Honesty
- Humor
- Influence
- Inner Harmony
- Justice
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Learning
- Love
- Loyalty
- Meaningful Work
- Openness
- Optimism
- Peace
- Pleasure
- Poise
- Popularity
- Recognition
- Religion
- Reputation
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Security
- Self-Respect
- Service
- Spirituality
- Stability
- Success
- Status
- Trustworthiness
- Wealth
- Wisdom
If you’re feeling out of sorts, start to track those moments.
Can you see a trend?
Where are the aspects of your work and life where this might come up?
How do pressures affect you?
How do you feel at your best?
Getting to know your core values and beliefs, helps you see how you react when they are misaligned. And how you work and live at your best, when they are aligned!
If you’re looking to make sense of some of your career and life bumps it might be because your values and beliefs are out of sync. I’d love to help you get realigned. Drop me a line at hello@seabreezecoaching.co.uk.
