Find your values, and they will guide your decision-making and increase your fulfillment.

Values are what make up our own internal compass and represent our unique judgment of what is important in our life. They are not imposed by the outside world. They come from within us; often they are influenced by our life experiences, our elders, and our current circumstances.

Your unique values drive your behavior, even if you’re not conscious of it. They determine how you react to adversity and what brings you joy. They can explain why that conversation you had at work bothers you so much that it keeps you up at night, but might not have the slightest impact on your colleague. Finally, your family life and personal relationships can be more fulfilling if you are able to live by your values.

As a leadership coach, mother, friend and colleague, I have become a scholar of understanding what motivates me and crafting a life around my values. I'm learning every day and constantly iterating on this theme for myself and my coaching clients.

Join me in an exploration of
your personal values!

I'm currently seeking people from all walks of life to participate in thought-provoking, heart-warming conversations with people you care about, focused on your personal values. Check it out!

from Louise Altman’s LIVING YOUR VALUES AT WORK

Why should our values matter to us? Because our values are one of the most potent forces in our lives. These intangibles motivate and drive us in our work. They inform all of our decisions. Along with our beliefs and feelings, values form our internal map of reality. Our values are powerful because they supply our work (and everything else in our lives) with meaning. Real meaning. Meaning that has purpose and depth that reflects who we are in the world. Without them, we get attached (some might say – fixated) to external motivators and rewards.

Without a strong sense of our values guiding and supporting us, we can also get caught up in other people’s values – spouses, colleagues, partners, families, cultures. There is nothing wrong with that except that without awareness of how to recognize and satisfy our own core values, we can lose our way and find ourselves working in the service of someone else’s causes and goals.

It’s easy to be cynical about using words and calling them values. But values – real values – are fundamental to our purpose as human beings. When we consciously choose to understand them – and the behaviors they drive – a whole range of new choices can open to us.

ACTIVATING YOUR VALUES

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