Your personal core values are the abstract ideals that act as a compass and guide your behaviors, decision-making and interactions. They can even help you determine where to spend your time and who with. You don’t have to be good at what you value, it only matters that these values —be them attitudes, principles, virtues, or strengths — are important to YOU.

Developing your core values takes reflection, awareness, learning and experimentation. Without setting aside time to reflect upon your values and learning to trust your own internal wisdom, you may rely on an external authority to determine your values. Reflecting on what is important to you may mean discarding much of what you learned in your family, schools, workplaces or religious institutions.

The more you develop and orient to your own personal core values in life, the more you become your own authority and be a stand in your life. Which is why this is such a great activity to do when you are in a transition or beginning a journey of self-awareness and transformation (i.e. coaching).

According to Dr. K. McGonigal, simply writing about your values for 10 minutes (also known as a mindset intervention) leads to profound psychological and physical health benefits for years to come.

So let’s get started!