At Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio a client’s values are an important part of the coaching process. But what are values? According to Merriam Webster, dictionary, values are defined as “something) as a principal or quality), intrinsically valuable or desirable.“ Some synonyms include character, conduct, ethics, morals, scruples, standards, beliefs, integrity, ideals, and attitude as a way to anchor this particular concept. Personal values for the bedrock of an individual’s behaviors. They inform a person’s decisions, their direction, and are an important influence to most everything in an individual’s life.
At Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio values are an important element in the coaching process because they have such an impact on a person’s personal model. It is interesting that sometimes a client might not be able to articulate their own personal values, although they know what they believe, have certain assumptions and judge things in a certain way. Uncovering a person’s values, being able to clearly articulate these can serve as a powerful coaching tool to help a client understand who they are and how these values operate in their lives. This anonymous quote really hits home on the topic of values: “A sense of values is the most important single element in human personality.“ At Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio this important resource is taken seriously and leveraged to help a client both understand themselves and align their goals and direction with the same.
So how does one effectively uncover and articulate a person’s core values? One common way is to take a list of values, of course, with an opportunity to add their own thoughts in, and identify the top ones say for example their top five that are most important to them. Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio can facilitate this exercise as it is not always easy to pull these out. it is also important to understand. There are values which are fear-based or values referred to as “should haves” and ones that are conscious values which are likely the ones a client would want to gravitate towards.
One might ask, why all the focus on values? At Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio it is important because having this foundational understanding of self and extending that towards the client – coaching relationship, can have an incredible impact on the momentum and potential success of the coaching journey. In fact, values are considered critical to effective coaching overall. This includes understanding the power of values in a person‘s life, how they operate to impact an individual and how aligning ones life goals with these values will make all the difference.
On the topic of the values, these are not only important for a client, but also come in to play for the coach as well. There are fundamental values a coach must have in order to be effective. These include standards such as believing in people, being responsible, being encouraging and open-minded, agreeing that authentic relationships are critical, as well as living out the value that each person is unique and brings to the table incredible potential. This is the case at Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio
Some helpful coaching questions that help clients uncover their values include questions such as: “Wh are some of your core values?” Or “What things, if they were removed from your life or you did not have the ability to do them anymore, would make life pretty miserable?“ Another value finding question may include, “Where do you invest your time, financial resources and energy the most? And, why do you think you do that?” Finally, “In your life, what do you take the most pride in? And what do you get most energized about in your life? And why?” Of course there are many other questions and ways to uncover a person’s values, but these are just some examples.
Another fun exercise might be to look back to when a client was younger. Identify five to 10 qualities that were true for the client before they became a teenager. This might seem a bit silly and some might even not remember, but should a person be able to pull this up in their memory they might find out that there are certain consistent things which they were drawn to even as a child. These might be things such as being a nature, lover or being drawn toward creative activities, such as painting, drawing, writing, theater arts or the like. A client might find it interesting that the things they were drawn to in their younger years and still are a parent in their current life might be values they should consider as core for themselves. For individuals values are, of course, unique to them. One only need observe a person’s life from morning to when they lay their head on the pillow, to whom they interact with, how they interact with them, what activities and behaviors characterize their life, etc., to get a glimpse into a working set of values that might be operating in their life. A simple focus on uncovering this might make a significant difference in aligning their life with their values. When a person aligns their life and values, there is a certain continuity, clarity, and peace, which helps the growth process. It is also true when a person is living their life inconsistent with their core values, this can cause chaos, frustration, failure among other things. Getting that alignment right is critical to making progress and keeping momentum going in the coaching journey.
The famous leadership guru John Maxwell, hits the topic of values on the head. He says: “your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul.” At Live on Purpose | Life Coaching – life coaching San Antonio a client will get the support they desire to work towards making the changes in their lives that help them live consistently, fully, with energy and passion, where they are aligned with their core personal values. This can make all the difference!