We love our work when our job aligns with our values. So how do you get to experience your values in your workplace? Surprisingly, it’s not about getting something from your employer. It’s about making a subtle shift deep within you.
what are values?
There are things in our life, sometimes referred to as our principles, which matter most to us. These are things we hold dear to our hearts. In personal development land, they are often referred to as values.
Values can change over time, and they’re often influenced by the circumstances in our life. If you haven’t consciously reviewed your values and the reason why you value those things over others, chances are you are living by other people’s values. You may be running your life based on the values of your parents or family unit, peers, school.
You can change your values by choosing to make a way of being more important to you than other ways of being. And in doing that, your values change. So if you’re not sure of your top 10 values, or you think they may have changed, check out either of these free trainings on the home page:
- how to fall in love with your work, or
- how to attract a job you can fall in love with
If you don’t know what matters most to you, you’re going to find it difficult to love what you do, unless you happen across a job that matches your values by accident.
how are you experiencing your top value?
Think about your top value. I have a question for you. Who are you being when you are living from that value?
Let me give you an example. If my top value is love, what things am I saying to myself? Self love is just as important as loving everybody else. When I’m coming from that place of love, how am I looking after myself? What foods am I using to fuel my body, my mind and my soul? How do I move my body? What are my self care rituals? And what do I say to myself that other people can’t hear.
If love as your top value, start with self love. Because how you treat and care for yourself and the quality of your self talk is picked up and magnified back to you through your external experiences and interactions. Okay, so let’s broaden out this inquiry.
So if love is my top value, how am I being at work? How am I talking with my colleagues, with my team? How am I interacting at the Board table if I know everything happens for me rather than to me?
If love is my top value, how am I being when I get home from work? Am I present? Have I decided how I will be and the energy I’ll bring as soon as I walk through that door. Decide before you walk through the door so that you can be the energetic influencer of your space. Responding rather than reacting to what greets you at home.
knowing what you value can lead to joy at work
So let’s look specifically at your work. How do you need to be at work in order to experience your top three values?
What circumstances could you set up to allow yourself to live your values? What values does your employer have (the ones that they really have rather than the ones that are written on the statement on the wall in the meeting room). Don’t worry, if your values don’t align with your employer. It doesn’t mean you need to find a new job. But if your values do align with your employer, you’ve hit the jackpot.
So if your values don’t align with your employer’s values, find ways to express your values in that workplace. Let me give you an example.
How to express your values in your workplace
Or if giving back or serving is something that matters most to you, organise a team building day where your team can do some volunteer work like planting some trees. Find ways to architect your work so that you deliver value in a way that resonates with who you are and what matters most to you.
Or If you value learning, use your personal development plan to build skills that will benefit you inside and outside the workplace. Focus on building softer skills, you know those being skills, rather than just the doing skills.
Vedic philosophy says, we come into this world with a finite number of breaths. We spend a lot of those breaths at work. Don’t you think it’s better to expend those breaths with joy in your soul, rather than slogging away counting down to the weekend when you can really begin to have a life?
Have your life now.