This self improvement article is written by Robert Greenshields.

----------

If you're not getting the results you want in some areas of your life, the problem may be your values.

We may think of values as being the moral code which we live by and therefore don’t think too much about them.

But, in fact, values are very powerful in all areas of our lives.

Our values motivate us, help us decide what to do and influence how we feel about something afterward

So our values can drive us to success or prevent us reaching it.

We can therefore get better results in our lives by understanding our own values.

We develop our values in the early years of our lives – heavily influenced by the people around us at that time – our parents, our friends and our teachers.

They will also be significantly affected by where we grew up, what the economic conditions of the time were and by our ‘heroes’ from the worlds of sport, cinema and television.

As everyone is subject to different influences, everyone develops their own values. We are all motivated by different things, have different desires and feel differently about the same situation.

What happens is that when we try to achieve a goal or vision, it is much easier when it is in alignment with our personal values.

On the other hand, if we're seeking to do something that isn’t in alignment with our values, it will be very difficult.

So it’s useful to know what your values really are in different areas of your life so that you know
what really drives you.

To understand your values in your business life, for example, start off by answering the question: “What’s important to you about your business?”

Very often, values are quite unconscious, so they don’t come to your mind immediately. So it’s important to keep asking this question until you ‘dry up’. And even after you dry up, go back to the beginning of the process and start again with the question.

Something like satisfaction is a value; reward is a value. These words have a specific meaning that is motivating to you in the context of that area of your life. And what’s important is what the word means to you – the same word may have a different meaning to someone else.

Once you’ve come up with a list of your values, rank them in order of their importance to you.

Start with whatever is most important. What is the one thing in that area of your life that you couldn’t live without? Work through that process. You don’t need to go all the way down if you’ve got a very long list. Stick to the first eight or so.

Check the list and see if it really describes what is important to you and how you are motivated. If you’re not happy that the list is accurate for you, keep rewriting it until you are satisfied.

Now that you know the values in this area of your life, you’ll be able to ensure that they are supporting you in your goals.

If you find you are doing something that doesn’t align with your values, it’s usually easier to do something different – rather than try to change your values.