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About UsValues
What are values?
Values are our beliefs or attitudes. Consciously or not, values underlie decision-making: when faced with multiple options, you will generally choose the one best-aligned with your values. Ultimately, your happiness depends on how well you satisfy your values.
Values are quite complex. Peripheral values influence core values, and core values influence or conflict with other core values. Some values are instilled by parents, friends, teachers, and religious leaders. Others are developed in reaction to experiences.
Regardless of where or how values are developed, they are relatively set. We tend only to change our values when we are forced to. Job security is a good example. Older people tend to value job security more than young people, because older people have faced significant events—marriage, a mortgage, children—that demand long-term planning and financial stability.
Defining your values
To assess and clarify your values, ask these questions:
- What does the "perfect" job look like?
- If you were not constricted by time or money, what would you most like to learn?
- What would you most like to accomplish before you die?
- Of which of your accomplishments are you most proud?
- If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
We can also help you define your values through drop-in advising or ASCS Q294: Basic Career Development.
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