By Teresa Salhi at Empower The Dream
Dalai Lama – Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Our personal value or self-worth is what we stand for in the world in which we live. It often comes to us naturally, yet many of our values can be nourished and developed throughout life. Our personal values are what must find within rather than allowing others to give to us. What I mean is, the love we give to ourselves also means to own and believe in who we really – rather than only accepting only what others tell us who we are.
The truth is we are all extremely valuable, in fact, we are priceless!
Values can be made up of everything that has happened to you in your life and include influences from: your parents and family, your religious affiliation, your friends and peers, your education, your reading, and more. Effective people recognize these environmental influences and identify and develop a clear, concise, and meaningful set of values and priorities. Once defined, values impact every aspect of your life.
We can look at others and admire what they do, say and be. Take the Dalai Lama for example, he embodies personal values of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. He also exudes high self-worth.
To get in touch with your values, and I also like to call these your personal strengths, ask yourself:
1. What DO I stand for?
2. What’s REALLY important to me?
If you are unsure of these answers, it is ok to think about the positive attributes friends, co-workers or family have pointed out in you or you can recall something that you accomplished in the past that gave you great joy. What value or strength did you pull from that resulted in the joy?
There are many characteristics considered of high value or admirable strengths, some of these include:
- Confident
- Faithful
- Trusting
- Grateful
- Patient
- Respectful
- Integrity
- Honest
- Giving
- Loving
When your actions and words align with your values, life is generally good and you feel content, confident and satisfied. Your self-worth expands. But when your behaviors don’t match-up with your values, you soon begin to sense an uneasiness that begins to swell and grow inside.
Making a conscious decision to identity which values are the most important supports keeping anxiety low and your happiness, sense of personal worth + self-awareness high.
Perhaps there are other values or strengths that you would like to embody and develop. Awesome! You really do have unlimited power and potential. Again, it is deliberate and conscious awareness of who you are right now that can be the love behind developing and expanding who you want to become and what you want to stand for.
Giving attention to your personal values and strengths is one of the most important things you can do for yourself, for your family, work and overall life well-being. It has a great impact on your self-worth, confidence and how you show up in the world living on purpose and with your success in hand.
How else can you go forward with purpose, balance and lead a blissful life? It really does show up in everything you do whether you are aware of it yet or not. You owe it yourself to live out your potential, to embrace your value and to allow it to speak for itself.
Your self-worth and value are not determined by a number but you are Priceless!
P.S. Here is a popular home study course that will catapult your life results and boost your confidence to new levels.
Teresa Salhi,
Catalyst for Women’s Empowerment, Business and Personal Life Success
