VALUES

In the last lesson, you have been looking at your needs and getting those met. Let’s expand on that and start to explore what is really important to you – what your values are.

Values are the principles that guide your decisions and actions in life. They reflect what is important to you and what you care about. By identifying your values, you can better understand yourself and what motivates you. You can also improve your relationships with others by communicating your values and respecting their values (boundaries).

When we think of our values, we think of what matters to us in life. We all hold several values that vary in importance. A value that is important to one person may be unimportant to another. Values are central to understanding social and personal organisation and change. They can be used to characterise cultural groups, societies, and individuals, and they help us understand our motivations, attitudes, and behaviours.