Life values are important guidelines, kind of pointers along the path of life. Each person has their own. They are the ones who help to cope with problems and overcome unfavorable circumstances. The main thing is that a person’s actions and words coincide with his beliefs. Otherwise, the discrepancy between actions and internal values will cause irritability, anxiety, and a feeling of dissatisfaction with life.
What it is
Each of us has unique guidelines, thanks to which we understand what is more and what is less important, what is acceptable and what is not. This is a set of beliefs, ideals and principles that we follow when performing a particular action. Using these internal “standards of excellence” you can determine what is most meaningful in your personal universe.
Sometimes a person establishes these coordinates himself, relying on his experience, and sometimes they are acquired by him from the outside with the easy supply of society and firmly grow into his worldview. If an individual betrays his basic attitudes, he will face intrapersonal conflict, which will entail a state of depression.
Definition of the concept and signs
Life values are a kind of absolute that occupies a primary position in worldview. We are guided by them, setting certain goals for ourselves, and through their prism we evaluate our actions, desires, as well as the behavior of other people. With their help we set priorities.
To become a value guide, an existing phenomenon of reality must receive an emotional response and a rational explanation of its significance for a particular person. Therefore, you cannot impose your coordinate system on another.
In the process of formation and development of personality, values can and will certainly change. In childhood, some things come to the fore, in youth, others, and in adulthood, absolutely opposite ones. A person’s priorities directly depend on the events he experiences and the influence of certain ideas on him. Some situations can turn your mind around, look at your life from a different angle and completely rethink your hierarchy of guidelines.
List of main features of value attitudes
- Significance. They have weight and importance in the eyes of the one who owns them. At all costs, the owner strives to observe and protect them.
- Awareness. As a rule, people are aware of what is important to them. Based on this understanding, they build a certain model of behavior, which they adjust to existing internal norms and rules with the help of self-control and self-discipline.
- Self-sufficiency. Personal guidelines do not need the approval or advice of others.
- Positive character. These beliefs are not perceived by the individual as obligations. They are not burdensome, but evoke only positive emotions.
Rethinking
The formation of values begins almost from the first days of a child’s life and ends around the age of 22. But throughout life, various situations can cause a rethinking of priorities. Most often we are talking about serious negative and positive emotional shocks and depressive states.
A change in life priorities can also occur due to the following events:
- marriage;
- old age (as life's journey ends);
- your own serious illness or the illness of someone close to you;
- loss/death of a loved one;
- unrequited love or feelings for a person who does not live up to ideals;
- life crises (youth, maturity, existential);
- sudden changes in financial situation (both poverty and sudden acquisition of wealth);
- birth of children;
- tragic events on a global scale, the victims of which are a large number of people.
It happens that priorities change involuntarily. People intuitively choose the best path for their future lives. In cases of crisis, the reason for rethinking is prolonged mental suffering. For example, the problem of life values becomes relevant for those who suffer from depression. Such people need a conscious approach and a clear desire for change.
Rethinking your life priorities (an example of which is your career or relationships with people) is a breath of fresh air, a clean slate. These are internal and external changes in a person and changes in life in general. They often give people harmony and happiness.
The role of life values
Each person should clearly understand their internal coordinate system. This understanding will help when solving difficult issues, at the moment when it is necessary to make a choice. Awareness of what is actually primary for you at a given moment in time will allow you to avoid global mistakes and regrets.
The hierarchy of significant attitudes is individual. Based on it, the individual builds his life. Very often you have to choose between two important things; stopping internal torment and doubts is precisely what helps you analyze your own guidelines and priorities. There is no clear, right or wrong answer to the question of what a person's core values should be. It all depends on the attitude of a particular individual.
Components of personality
The formation of value systems is an essential part of the process of socialization and personal development. Under ideal conditions, they should be ordered, structured in the mind, and their owner should clearly understand what is of paramount importance to him at this stage of life. But not everyone knows how to work with their beliefs and prioritize them.
Relationships between people are largely built on the coincidence or divergence of internal guidelines and priorities. The compatibility and similarity of their values strengthens relationships and connections, and divergence becomes the cause of conflict situations. New value attitudes are formed under the condition of the individual’s natural involvement in an unfamiliar environment, where his need for something that he had not previously thought about is discovered.
Prerequisites for behavior
Prioritization of internal beliefs is the main motive that determines people’s actions, lifestyle and direction of activity. Depending on what is important to an individual, he will consciously or unconsciously strive to follow this paradigm and build his desires and plans around it.
Psychologist Daria Milai
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Every action of an individual is a reflection of his values. Knowing what a person primarily relies on, you can predict his reaction to any phenomenon and better understand his motivation. We all perceive the world through the prism of already existing paradigms, which were formed on the basis of past experience, which is why it can be so difficult to hear and accept the position of another.
Methods
Each person has his own algorithm, you need to choose a method that resonates with life rhythms and then the result of your efforts will increase several times. You can try them out in practice or trust your intuition.
Eisenhower Matrix
To implement it, priorities are distributed according to two criteria - urgency and importance. They are written out according to the principle of a coordinate system, where tasks are lined up diagonally from the upper left corner to the lower right.
The table is clear and allows you to evaluate both the overall scale and the number of intermediate stages. It protects against cases falling into the category of urgent ones falling out of sight. Such a system is not only convenient to use, but also disciplines and coordinates.
Making lists
Some people don’t understand how important it is to be able to properly prioritize work and life and what this means for achieving your goals well. By grasping at everything at once, they risk losing everything, like sand slipping through their fingers. The basic principle of the list is from the most important to the most unimportant. It is advisable to make 2 lists, focusing on importance and urgency, and then check them for matches.
Pareto rule
Another original and effective method is to select 20% of the most necessary tasks and focus your efforts on them, leaving the rest for gradual implementation as far as possible. It turns out that solving the main tasks first frees up a lot of time and energy for other activities, accelerating progress towards the finish line.
ABC method
Eliminates the loss of significant things in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. To implement it, it is enough to distribute all tasks into 3 columns:
- important;
- not too much;
- you can get by.
Despite its apparent simplicity, the method works great; when used systematically, it disciplines thoughts and trains memory.
Descartes square
No matter what century a person lives in, knowing what correctly set priorities are will save him internal resources. It is simple, like everything ingenious, it requires concentration, but gives a very accurate result. Suitable for remote purposes for several years or a lifetime. Each is considered from 4 sides, which takes into account:
- consequences of failure;
- what will disappear or not happen when the plan is implemented;
- What can you lose if you don’t do anything?
The complexity of the process is compensated by the quick placement of tasks in order of importance.
How are they formed
The foundation for the formation of value guidelines is laid in childhood. A child, like a sponge, absorbs the results of his interaction with the world, sorts what is happening into “good” and “bad” categories with the help of his immediate environment (parents and peers). As an adult, it is much more difficult to change your beliefs, to turn the vector of thinking in a radically new direction. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to personality development in adolescence.
What influences the emergence of certain values:
- The process of education. In the early stages of life, it is the parents who serve as models for the child, thanks to whom he understands how to behave in a particular situation, what is pleasant and what is undesirable. Even interests are formed on the basis of the basis laid by loved ones. Adults demonstrate to children unique patterns of behavior that they consciously and unconsciously rely on in the future.
- Educational institutions. Kindergarten and school play no less important role in a child’s life than the family. By receiving new knowledge and skills from teachers, schoolchildren are already beginning to understand what is more important to them and what is less important.
- Social norms. Having barely felt like a part of society, we are faced with certain frameworks and requirements of behavior into which we agree to fit in so as not to cause condemnation.
- Self-knowledge. Having mastered this tool for personal development, a person discovers unlimited possibilities for self-analysis. They allow you to separate your views from others, to abstract from the obsessive influence of other people’s value coordinates.
Upbringing
The issue of forming life goals and priorities is mainly relevant for new parents and those whose upbringing for some reason is only in their own hands. Most people want to raise a son or daughter or to be happy and properly developed themselves. Parents’ own understanding of the correctness of priorities is a key factor when choosing the value system that they want to instill in their children.
If a child’s life goes without trauma and severe shocks, the ideas developed in childhood (about love, family, material enrichment, education, self-development and career growth) will be fixed in the subconscious for life. As a rule, families of workaholics and careerists grow up to be working and ambitious individuals who actively strive for a certain status. When love and close people are a family priority, a child grows up who values feelings and relationships.
Your priorities largely depend on your life experiences and what you deal with every day. It is pointless to convince the younger generation of the importance of family values if, for example, the father is not at home because of work, and the mother pays all her attention to her friends. Parents must demonstrate what they believe is right and appropriate by example.
Additional Tips
Make a list of important things to do.
This is a very useful practice. You need to make two lists.
First: cases that represent the big picture. For example, learning English, reading three books on communicating with people and implementing tips in life, creating a startup.
Second: what you need to do every day. These could be repetitive activities: exercise, reading, meditation.
It is important to break down the things on the first list into their components and start doing them. At the same time, make sure that the tasks from the second list are also completed. Balance is what will allow you to live a fulfilling life.
Key Value Guidelines
I classify them in two directions:
- Material. This includes everything related to a comfortable life, housing, and financial solvency.
- Spiritual. Something that cannot be felt with the help of the senses, but has great weight at the mental level. Family, friends, career, favorite business, education, health, beauty and so on.
However, it is almost impossible to strictly separate one category from another. One way or another, they are closely intertwined and cannot exist in isolation.
What are the personal values in a person’s life: a list of examples
- Activity.
- Serenity.
- Impartiality.
- Gratitude.
- Inspiration.
- Cheerfulness.
- Flexibility.
- Spirituality.
- Entertainment.
- Daydreaming.
- Wisdom.
- Reliability.
- Independence.
- Security.
- Certainty.
- Organized.
- Mindfulness.
- Frankness.
- Openness.
- Devotion.
- Attractiveness.
- Affiliation.
- Proactivity.
- Determination.
- Modesty.
- Stability.
- Courage.
- Hardness.
- Accuracy.
- Moderation.
- Uniqueness.
- Financial independence.
- Thrift.
- Sensuality.
- Generosity.
- Brightness.
- Altruism.
- Heroism.
- Optimism.
- Pragmatism.
- Practicality.
- Professionalism.
- Realism.
- Balance.
- Wealth.
- Hospitality.
- Benevolence.
- Curiosity.
- Consistency.
- Perfection.
- Creation.
- Perseverance.
- Faith.
- Power.
- Imagination.
- Achievement.
- Knowledge.
- Study.
- Pleasure.
- Education.
- Understanding.
- Adventure.
- Confidence.
- Abundance.
- Wit.
- Opening.
- Justice.
- Acceptance.
- Development.
- Diversity.
- Sympathy.
- Hard work.
- Pleasure.
- Coolness.
- Hygiene.
- Depth.
- Discipline.
- Self-discipline.
- Friendship.
- Health.
- Comfort.
- Beauty.
- Logics.
- Love.
- World.
- Hope.
- Experience.
- Victory.
- Support.
- Peace.
- Benefit.
- Is it true.
- Simplicity.
- Height.
- Self-control.
- Freedom.
- Family.
- Glory.
- Passion.
- Happiness.
- Tradition.
- Energy.
- Synergy.
- Success.
- Purity.
- Humor.
This is not a complete list of value guidelines existing in the world. Based on it, you can create your own hierarchy by adding other concepts.
Pyramid of Values
A. Maslow’s famous scheme, which describes human needs, can also characterize the system according to which life priorities are built. The foundation of human existence as a whole is its biological component. There are motives that physiology dictates to us: in other words, it is difficult to talk about the eternal when you are hungry, cold or in pain.
The next stage in the formation of priorities is the desire for security. This includes the desire to organize a comfortable space for living.
After this, social needs arise, the need for respect and recognition, the thirst for knowledge and creativity, aesthetic and spiritual values.
The deepest foundations of existence
In order to determine the meaning of life, it is necessary to consider several aspects at once. First, let's find the value of man and society within life itself. Everything that is inherent in the natural processes of existence is beautiful in itself. Every person values life and realizes that he came into this world not in vain, but with some kind of mission. Awareness of one's own necessity, the search for an important mission already fills a person's existence with deep meaning.
Simple, but such important human values have a sensual and emotional beginning. We are talking about love and friendship, devotion and honesty, selflessness and kindness, mercy and compassion, respect and honor. All these feelings, coupled with fidelity, hope, courage and conscience, help a person cope with internal demons, with the contradictory imperfections of existence. Speaking about the highest human values, one cannot fail to mention spirituality, which fills existence in its entirety.
Another classification of value guidelines in the table
| Basic prices . | |
| Personal | Knowledge, education, upbringing, self-discipline, health. |
| Socially conditioned | Relationships, family, friendship, communication, mutual assistance, love. |
| Material | |
| Financial well-being | Career, money, professionalism. |
| Social status | Recognition, success, power. |
| Spiritual | |
| Development | Self-knowledge, self-education, self-development. |
| Recreational | |
| Rest | Travel, adventure, impressions, energy, entertainment. |
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Value system for men and women
The debate about gender differences is currently very active. But it is difficult to deny the influence of historical and biological factors on the formation of value ideas. According to statistics, the desire, first of all, to build a career, gain high social status and material well-being is characteristic of the male part of humanity. Women's physiology and psychology implies bringing to the fore the desire to realize oneself as a mother and wife.
However, speaking not in general, but in particular, everything that concerns internal beliefs is a purely individual issue.
Hierarchy of values
Building your own pyramid of priorities helps in situations where you need to make a choice between several ambiguous options. It will also allow you to analyze your behavior and actions and prevent the emergence of internal conflict.
How to determine your life maxims
The most common technique for identifying a personal value-oriented system is the principle of comparative analysis. Start by writing down everything that matters to you. Don't limit yourself: use the list above and add your own items to it. This procedure can take quite a long time - take your time. The most important thing is to paint a picture of your worldview as fully as possible.
After this, rest and switch to another type of activity. Return to the list after a few hours or even days (for the purity of the experiment). Re-read it and choose the 10 most significant points for you, and simply cross out the rest. The next step is to reduce the resulting list by another half.
When the 5 most valuable concepts remain before your eyes, prioritize them. To do this, imagine something you could never give up in favor of something else. As a result, you will receive your own hierarchy of value systems. This is your inner compass.
