Having to choose where your values stand, is not something one usually thinks about on a day to day basis, I certainly hadn’t until I entered the world of coaching. The revelations about who you are,  and why you do the things you do, are tools that  I could have found extremely useful throughout my life.  Decisions and directions are easier when you can understand yourself. Simply knowing who you are, where you stand in life and why you do the things you do, allow you to follow a passionate life, not a half-hearted one. I can’t change the past, so I’ll happily take what I know about myself now, into my future.

Recently I’ve been concentrating on what I thought were my top three, Energy, Justice, and Connectivity, these all play strong roles in how I presently live my life. I wrote about justice in my last blog ‘Ageism and a Value’. It was a surprise when I did a Values elicitation with my coach and mentor, Ruby McGuire and found that these three weren’t where I thought they were at all. A Values elicitation is a process where through a series of specific coaching questions, your top ones are identified and put into an order of how you are actually living them.  In fact, I learned that my top current three are Learning, Nature, and Energy. I was actually relieved to find connectivity was at least number five, however, Justice is not even in the top ten!  The exercise made me reflect that my top three have actually been with me more or less since childhood.  Although naturally values change depending on where you are at in your life, such as your age group, environment, relationships, work life, however some stay consistent.

Reflecting on my current top three, firstly did I like learning at school? Well, the answer is, not particularly, it became increasingly important to me later on in my twenties when I could choose what I wanted to learn and on my own terms. Freedom and then choice are cherished values too, and these two you have little control of before adulthood.

Energy is inspiring whether it is from people, exercise, projects, moving from place to place, this value I’m fearful to lose, I wouldn’t be able to conduct my life as I do, and interestingly I am not drawn to inactive people, in fact, I can be uncomfortable in their company. Understanding yourself this way means you can move out of a situation that feels not right, for example in a work or personal relationship, it helps us to set boundaries. I was surprised to have Nature in my top three, but I then realised that it has been an important value throughout my life, and with age, I’m even more overwhelmed with the beauty of Planet Earth and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have this life-journey here. I was amused and at the same time thankful to be reminded in an article I recently read, that the probability of being born is about one in 400 trillion. That means we’re all miracles! Yes, nature is amazing!

Understanding your values can positively change your life, and make moving forward after fifty even more exciting.

Work with me one to one to discover your values, or join one of my Group workshops either online or in Aix en Provence.