If you find yourself juggling various responsibilities in life, it’s not uncommon to feel a bit lost at times. Whether it’s external pressures or your own diverse interests pulling you in different directions, prioritizing daily tasks and safeguarding your precious time can be challenging.

Before diving back to your routines, perhaps it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what truly matters to you. Consider your core values and assess whether your calendar and task lists align with a life that reflects your authentic self, not one dictated by societal expectations or external pressures.

Big wave hits the boardwalk an a stony beach.

How to define own core values?

I’ve gotta be honest here. I have no professional skills at all when it comes to psychology, philosophy or mastering life. All I can offer, however, is my own journey and lessons learned. I believe that values are deeply personal, relatively stable and going against them often feels inherently wrong. But how to wrap up something so abstract and strong to be described with few words or sentences?

My closest attempt at defining my core values involves using a combination of tools.

  • Start by searching for a “list of typical core values” on Google and select any list that includes at least 150 different values. Choose 25 that resonate with you. If this is hard, pick up some word that you don’t find matching at all and think what is an opposite for that. Maybe that is where your value stands. Then from those 25 words picked, group them around common themes and then narrow to 3–5 values that feel most significant to you.
  • If you ever undergo a recruitment process or workplace tests conducted by professional psychologists, ask for your test results and analyse that. dentify aspects that strongly align with your perspective, but also pay attention to any thoughts that trigger resistance – these might reveal aspects of yourself you haven’t fully recognised.
  • Seek feedback from people who know you well or have worked closely with you. Ask them what they believe drives you and what situations tend to cause stress.

Compile all the gathered information into one document. Look for patterns and identify values, thought processes, and actions that emerge as natural to you. What did you discover? Do you have alternative methods for defining core values? Share your thoughts in the comments below!