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Your values are the qualities you want to have and the principles you want to live your life by   

• Values: Principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life.  Oxford Dictionary
• Values: The principles that help you to decide what is right and wrong, and how to act in various situations. Cambridge Dictionary
• What are your values? Values are simply knowing what things are most important to you. Think about the things that really matter to you, the qualities you want to have, the principles you want to live your life by. Once you’ve identified these values, everything you do and choose should follow from those. Leo Babauta
• Your values are your current estimations of truth. They represent your answer to the question of how to live. Steve Pavlina
• Principles,  Ideals,  Morality and ethics,  Integrity

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Values are not the same as goals

• Values are not the same as goals. Values are directions we keep moving in, whereas goals are what we want to achieve along the way. A value is like heading West; no matter how far West you go, you never reach it. A goal is like the river or mountain or valley we aim to cross whilst traveling in that direction. Goals can be achieved or ‘crossed off’, whereas values are an ongoing process. Kelly Wilson
• Goal setting

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Your values are your internal compass to help you navigate through life …

• Values act as our compass to put us back on course every single day, so that day after day, we’re moving in the direction that takes us closer and closer to our definition of the “best” life we could possibly live. Steve Pavlina
• To set proper priorities, you begin with your values. What is really important to you? Of all the things that are important to you, what is most important? Brian Tracy
• Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values –  carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. Stephen Covey
• What difference would a clear vision of my principles, values, and ultimate objectives make in the way I spend my time?  Stephen Covey
• Values provide perspective in the best of times and the worst. Charles Garfield

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… especially when it comes to making decisions

• When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. Roy Disney
• When values are clear, decisions are easy. John Spence
• We must make a decision of values. Erich Fromm
• The good thing about principles is that they make life easy. I have heard it said that when someone bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made. Dave Ramsey     
• It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. Roy Disney     
• Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values firmly in mind then when challenges come, make decisions based on those values. Stephen Covey     
• Good judgement comes when your logical and rational thoughts and ideas are supported by a gut reaction that the decision “feels right”, and you can live comfortably with the consequences of your action. Inner wisdom goes even further because the decision not only feels right, but it also fits in with our values and beliefs.  Something deep inside you can answer, “Yes!” Dr Barbara Killinger   
• When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire. Brian Tracy
• Every decision a person makes stems from the person’s values and goals. Richard Stallman
• Every decision in your life is controlled by your beliefs and values. You may not realize it, but you have the power to choose what you believe about your life, people, money and health. Tony Robbins
• Decision making,  Choice

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Your values are a source of passion and purpose   

• Core values are those deep motivators that are the source of your passion and purpose. Values provide the ground of inner congruence and integrity. Eric Klein
• Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose. Edward de Bono
• Passion,  Purpose

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Your values are a source of meaning   

• Every time a value is born, existence takes on a new meaning; every time one dies, some part of that meaning passes away. Joseph Wood Krutch
• Values are principles and ideas that bring meaning to the seemingly mundane experience of life. A meaningful life that ultimately brings happiness and pride requires you to respond to temptations as well as challenges with honor, dignity, and courage. Laura Schlesinger
• The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate. Albert Einstein
• Meaning

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Your values are a source of identity

• I think it is possible that we may soon even define therapy as a search for values, because ultimately the search for identity is, in essence, the search for one’s own intrinsic, authentic values. Abraham Maslow
• We define ourselves, in part, by the discriminations we make. The value of what we love is enriched by our understanding of what we dislike. David Ansen
• Values are a part of us. They highlight what we stand for. They can represent our unique, individual essence. Scott Jeffrey
• I think the world would be a lot better off if more people were to define themselves in terms of their own standards and values and not what other people said or thought about them. Hillary Clinton
• Self-esteem

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Living your life by your values brings happiness…   

• Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. Ayn Rand
• Happiness and high performance come to you when you choose to live your life consistent with your highest values and your deepest convictions. Brian Tracy
• Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values. Ayn Rand
• As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace.  Stephen Covey
• Happiness and peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way. Stephen Covey
• There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark
• To be happy, engage only in that which accords with your highest ideals. Philip Arnold
• When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire. Brian Tracy  
• Happiness

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… and fulfilment…

• To feel more fulfilled your actions and activities need to be in alignment with what you deem important. Deborah Day
• When we honor our personal core values consistently, we experience fulfillment. When we don’t, we are incongruent and are more likely to escape into bad habits and regress into childish behavior to uplift ourselves. Scott Jeffrey
• A requirement for a fulfilling life is to live in integrity to your own deepest nature. A more simple way to say this is to live your values.    We all have values – they are as much a part of us as our blood types or our genetic makeup. They are as unique to us as our individual thumbprints. Our core values determine what’s really important and meaningful to us.  Melli O’Brien
• Fulfilment

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… and inner peace

• Whenever you experience stress of any kind, look into yourself and ask, “In what way am I compromising my innermost values in this situation?  Stephen Covey
• Inner peace

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Living life by your values strengthens your integrity and character   

• The highest morality is personal integrity—living in harmony with your own value system. Alan Cohen
• You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside. Alan Cohen
• I have a very simple definition of integrity: you are in integrity when what you are doing on the outside matches who you are on the inside. Alan Cohen
• True integrity—the true test of character—is to live what you say is important to you—even when you don’t feel like it—to live your values above and beyond your moods. James Arthur Ray
• Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. Albert Einstein
• Character—the courage and conviction to live by our deepest values—is the key muscle that serves spiritual energy. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Strive for integrity – that means knowing your values in life and behaving in a way that is consistent with these values.
• Integrity is not so much a value in itself; it is rather the value that guarantees all the other values.
• As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace. You will define yourself from within, rather than by people’s opinions or by comparisons to others. “Wrong” and “right” will have little to do with being found out. Stephen Covey  
• Out of fear, out of the desire for approval, out of the misguided notions of duty, people surrender themselves–their convictions and their aspirations–every day. There is nothing noble about it. It takes far more courage to fight for your values than to relinquish them.  Nathaniel Branden
• The hero is the person dedicated to the creation and/or defense of reality-conforming, life-promoting values. Andrew Bernstein
• Integrity,  Character

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Values determine what you sow and reap in life

• We reap in age what we have sown, in our values, all along the way. Baba Ram Dass
• Every one of us receives and passes on an inheritance. The inheritance may not be an accumulation of earthly possessions or acquired riches, but whether we realize it or not, our choices, words, actions, and values will impact someone and form the heritage we hand down.  Ben Hardesty
• Consequences

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Your values are who you are and help determine your attitude   

• Your attitude is an expression of your values, beliefs and expectations. Brian Tracy
• Attitude

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Your values can facilitate personal transformation

• People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value. Stephen Covey
• Transformation,  Change,  Growth

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Actively identify your values

• Think of eight heroes—role models you think are inspiring for one reason or another. Narrow that list to five.For each hero, list four characteristics that are inspiring to you. These can be behaviors, qualities you sense, or situations they have created. Look for patterns in your lineup of role models. Recurring themes or words can give you a clue about what you believe is important. Danielle LaPorte
• What you risk reveals what you value. Jeanette Winterson
• We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs. Gloria Steinem
• Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are. José Ortega y Gasset
• Life’s ups and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals. Marsha Sinetar
• Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent. Parker Palmer
• Self-knowledge,  Reflection

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Here are some examples of powerful, positive values   

• Real success requires respect for and faithfulness to the highest human values– honesty, integrity, self- discipline, dignity, compassion, humility, courage, personal responsibility, courtesy, and human service. Michael DeBakey, M.D.
• Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness. R.J. Palacio
• The hope of free people in a frightened world is the values which people put ahead of inventions when their backs are to the wall. These values are beauty, truth, goodness and having a faith, all of which are bombproof.  Ralph W. Sockman
• The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.  Albert Einstein
• The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends. Samuel Johnson
• For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. Ellen DeGeneres
• Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention. Deepak Chopra

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Ask yourself these questions to determine your values

• What are the most important things to you in life?
• What are your 5 most important personal values?
• What do you represent?
• What do you believe in?    
• What do you stand for?
• Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire.
• Who are your heroes? Why? How are you like them?
• What kind of person do you enjoy spending time with? How can you be this person to others?
• What qualities do you want to embody?
• Which of your values are “should” values – values that you follow because you feel it is necessary or expected by others?
• Which of your values are “chosen values” – values that you choose to hold onto and live from?
• Which of your values are “core values” – values that truly matter most to you?
• What endeavours will stimulate and inspire you as well as tie you to what you value most?
• More questions:  Values (questions)

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Create a ranked list of 5 to 10 core values to help guide your life

• How many core values should you end up with? Too few and you won’t capture all the unique dimensions of your being. Too many and you’ll forget them or won’t take advantage of them. While the number of core values differs for each person, the magic range seems to be between 5 and 10. Scott Jeffrey
• Rank your core values in the order of importance. This is often the most challenging part. You may need to do this step in multiple sittings. After doing one round of ranking put it aside and “sleep on it.” Scott Jeffrey

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Use your values to create a mission statement

• A mission statement is not something you write overnight… But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life. Stephen Covey
• Bitter experience has taught us how fundamental our values are and how great the mission they represent.  Jan Peter Balkenende
• Create a personal mission statement

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…or create statements to give your values richer context

• Highlighting values into memorable phrases or sentences helps you articulate the meaning behind each value. It gives you the opportunity to make the value more emotional and memorable. Use inspiring words and vocabulary. Mine for words that evoke and trigger emotional responses. Make your value statements rich and meaningful to you so they inspire you to uphold them. For example, let’s say you’ve identified a core value of health to represent other values, like energy and vitality. Your values statement might be: “Health: to live with full vitality and energy every day.” Scott Jeffrey

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Examine your values to determine if they are serving you…

• I have not said your values are wrong. But neither are they right. They are simply judgments. Assessments. Decisions. For the most part, they are decisions made not by you, but by someone else. Your parents, perhaps. Your religion. Your teachers, historians, politicians. Neale Donald Walsch
• Most people don’t choose their value system – they simply inherit the beliefs of their parents and community. Jonathan Lockwood Huie
• Examine them one by one. Review them piece by piece. Do not dismantle the house, but look at each brick, and replace those which appear broken, which no longer support the structure. Neale Donald Walsch
• Values are good things only if they are good values. Michael Josephson
• Some values are. . . like sugar on the doughnut, legitimate, desirable, but insufficient, apart from the doughnut itself. We need substance as well as frosting.  Ralph T. Flewelling

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…especially if they are not your values to start off with

• I have not said your values are wrong. But neither are they right. They are simply judgments. Assessments. Decisions. For the most part, they are decisions made not by you, but by someone else. Your parents, perhaps. Your religion. Your teachers, historians, politicians. Neale Donald Walsch

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Let go of values that no longer serve you   

• The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs. Jared Diamond

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Let your values shape your goals and dreams   

• We often fall into a trap: the goals we strive for have little in common with the values we hold most dear. Craig & Marc Kielburger
• Make sure that your goals and activities are congruent with your true values and convictions. Brian Tracy
• When your goals and values are not in line it is as if you have two horses pulling you in different directions. Kimberly Goodwin
• Cherish your vision; Cherish your ideals; Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. If you remain true to them, your world will at last be built. James Allen
• If you understand your guiding values and have a clear sense of your preferences and desires, you will likely instantly recognise when there’s a match between you and a particular activity or life task. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Goal setting,  Dreams

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Let your values shape your decisions and choices   

• Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values firmly in mind then when challenges come, make decisions based on those values. Stephen Covey
• It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. Roy Disney
• You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you have to make choices, and hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. Fred Rogers
• Every decision you make—every decision—is not a decision about what to do. It’s a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do. Neale Donald Walsch
• Every choice before you represents the universe inviting you to remember who you are and what you want. Alan Cohen
• As a general rule, the more you explore and identify what you personally consider the most essential factors and features of your life, the more solid your reference point for the times when you have to make tough choices. David Allen
• When you know what your values are, making decisions becomes easier. Glenn van Eckeren
• All decision-making is a values-clarifying exercise. Tony Robbins
• The decisions you make are a choice of values that reflect your life in every way. Alice Waters
• Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions. Rick Warren
• Decision making,  Choice

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Let your values shape and guide your behaviour and actions   

• A value in action is a virtue.  Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior. Dee Hock
• Values guide our behavior, providing us with a personal code of conduct. Scott Jeffrey
• Beingness leads to doingness. Neale Donald Walsch
• The way to do…is to be. Lao Tzu
• Who we are being, including who we consider ourselves to be, always informs or determines what actions we see to take. Brad Swift
• What we do flows from who we are. Paul Vitale
• We all have an image of our ideal self, an elaborate construct of the kind of person we would like to be. While it is not always possible to feel as this constructed self would (fearless and compassionate at all times, for example), we can act in accordance with its ideals (courageous, generous, and so on). Active acceptance is about recognizing things as they are and then choosing the course of action we deem appropriate and worthy of ourselves. It is about recognizing that at every moment in our life we have a choice—to be afraid and yet to act courageously, to feel jealous and yet to act benevolently, to accept being human and act with humanity. Tal Ben- Shahar
• Action,  Right action

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Align your thoughts, emotions and goals with your values

• Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance. Brian Tracy
• Thinking,  Emotions,  Goal setting

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Align your values with your talents and strengths

• Talents, like intelligence, are value neutral. If you want to change your life so that others may benefit from your strengths, change your values. Don’t waste time trying to change your talents. Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton
• Talent,  Strength

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Live by your values, leaving them all over everything you do

• You need to find a way to live your life, that it doesn’t make a mockery of your values. Bill Ayers
• Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ’em all over everything you do.  Elvis Presley
• Living consciously

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Realise you have three choices if your actions don’t match your values   

• Our values and behaviors are incongruent, and this incongruence causes us a certain degree of moral discomfort. In order to alleviate this discomfort, we have three choices: we can change our values to match our behaviors, we can change our behaviors to match our values, or we can change our perception of our behaviors so that they appear to match our values. Melanie Joy

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Find people who share your values   

• Tough times expose shared values. John Haas
• Find people who share your values, and you’ll conquer the world together. John Ratzenberger

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Periodically perform a values self-check

• Our values are a gauge that measures how close we are to our true selves. If we stray too far away, life can feel as though we are in constant conflict. Although it is worthwhile to identify personal values, it is critical to perform an occasional self-check. Are you living, working, and leading others in a manner that brings you fulfillment? Our values often change depending on our circumstances and life experiences. Patricia Sauer

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Put your focus in life on what you value most   

• One is often so busy doing life that it is easy to avoid evaluating whether you are putting your energy in the direction you value most. Deborah Day
• The whole problem with people is they know what matters but they don’t choose it. Sue Monk Kidd
• Put first things first
• Your life is your statement to the world representing your values, your beliefs, your dreams. David Arenson
• Living in a way that reflects one’s values is not just about what you do, it is also about how you do things. Deborah Day
• One is often so busy doing life that it is easy to avoid evaluating whether you are putting your energy in the direction you value most. Deborah Day
• Focus

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Subordinate your impulses to your values   

• You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings, your impulses, your moods to those values. Stephen Covey
• It takes more courage to to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Alex Karras
• The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values – carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. Stephen Covey
• We must not let the actions or words of others determine our responses. Magnanimous people make the choice to respond to the indignities of others based upon their own principles and their own value system rather than their moods or anger. Stephen Covey
• Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values. Joshua Loth Liebman
• Temptation,  Self-control

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Hold firm to your values, especially in difficult times   

• Out of fear, out of the desire for approval, out of the misguided notions of duty, people surrender themselves–their convictions and their aspirations–every day. There is nothing noble about it. It takes far more courage to fight for your values than to relinquish them.  Nathaniel Branden
• Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth. Swami Vivekananda
• The hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen. Andrew Bernstein
• Values provide perspective in the best of times and worst. Charles A. Garfield
• Don’t let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth– don’t let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency. Aesop
• Adversity

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Allow your ideals to light your way   

• Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. Louisa May Alcott
• Our ideals resemble the stars, which illuminate the night. No one will ever be able to touch them. But the men who, like the sailors on the ocean, take them for guides, will undoubtedly reach their goal. Carl Shurz
• Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them. Carl Schurz
• It’s easy to act as if you are a weathervane, always changing your beliefs and words, trying to please everyone around you. But we were born to be lighthouses, not weathervanes. Robert K. Cooper

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Success is carrying your values into the world   

• To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world–that I am able to change it in positive ways. Maxine Hong Kingston
• Success in any endeavor depends on the degree to which it is an expression of your true self. Ralph Marston
• Success

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Let your values help you to embrace change   

• Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values. The Dalai Lama
• People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value. Stephen Covey
• Lasting change is a series of compromises. And compromise is all right, as long your values don’t change. Jane Goodall  
• Change

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Your values drive your behaviour while principles govern the consequences of those behaviours   

• Everyone has values; even criminal gangs have values. Values govern people’s behavior but principles govern the consequences of those behaviors. Stephen Covey
• While values drive behaviors, principles govern consequences. Stephen Covey  
• Principles are objective and external, while values are subjective and internal.  Stephen Covey
• Principles are like a compass. A compass has a true north that is objective and external, that reflects natural laws or principles, as opposed to values which are subjective and internal. Stephen Covey
• Principles are natural laws that are external to us and that ultimately control the consequences of our actions. Values are internal and subjective and represent that which we feel strongest about in guiding our behavior. Stephen Covey
• Consequences

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Money should never be separated from values   

• Money should never be separated from values. Detached from values it may indeed be the root of all evil.  Linked effectively to social purpose it can be the root of opportunity.  Rosabeth Moss Kanter
• Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. Samuel Johnson

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There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it   

• There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you. Charles Dudley Warner
• There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself. Henry David Thoreau

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Values in society   

• Our society’s values are being corrupted by advertising’s insistence on the equation: Youth equals popularity, popularity equals success, success equals happiness.  John Arbuthnot Fisher
• It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Today we live in a world that judges its achievements by speed and busyness. … We are so busy making things happen that we have little time left to think about the value of what is happening. We urgently need people who concentrate on the meaning of life rather than simply the speed. Joan Chittister

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• Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ’em all over everything you do.  Elvis Presley
• We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs. Gloria Steinem
• If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested they’re not values: they’re hobbies.  Jon Stewart
• Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values – and witnesses. Franklin P. Jones
• Some values are. . . like sugar on the doughnut, legitimate, desirable, but insufficient, apart from the doughnut itself. We need substance as well as frosting. Ralph T. Flewelling

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