Alisa Camplin: The importance of living your values

In the business world, it’s perfectly normal – desirable, even – to establish a set of values that your company stands for. In our personal lives, though, we rarely pause to think about what drives us and what’s most important. It’s even rarer that we take the time to learn what our friends, colleagues, and loved ones value.

Our personal values reflect who we are; they’re like an inner North Star that guides us as we navigate life. They sit behind our behaviours and are a core component of our personal identities. So if we don’t live true to our values, it can feel like a betrayal of the self.

The organisations, communities, and relationships you move through in your life will each have a set of values. To thrive, you need to find and focus on where these values meet your own. This alignment will boost your chance of success and make your connections more positive. Without it, you might find friction and frustration.

Before we can use our personal values to better engage with what we do, strengthen our connections, and unlock greater success, we first need to identify what they are!

Our values start forming early in life and help to shape us as we grow. Parents, other people of influence, life experiences, upbringing, and environments all inform how we interact with – and respond to – the world. But it’s important that we unearth our own set of values along the way so that we don’t just echo those passed on to us.

There have been several times in my life when I’ve deeply explored, defined, and articulated my values. The first time was in my early 20s, when I had just entered the workforce and was also training to get to the Olympics as an aerial skier. I thought hard about what success meant for me, as an athlete and a young professional – and not just what I wanted to achieve, but how I wanted to go about it. I grew up middle-class and had to work hard to participate in such an expensive sport and progress against the odds, while also working full-time. For this reason, values like self-belief, hard work, professional development, being results-oriented, and financial discipline were important to me.

When you’re trying to uncover your values, you need to invest significant time – I’m talking half a day, not a few minutes – to really think about the things you care about and respond to. This is very introspective work and you don’t want to rush it. First, find a long list of values online (there are plenty of different versions freely available) and print it out. Take yourself out for a coffee and then really mull over the list. Listen to what your gut, your heart, and your head are telling you. Which words do you feel drawn to? Keep circling values until you’ve chosen at least 20 or 30.

Next comes refinement. Try to ascertain which values are most important to you and compare them against one another. You’ll start noticing that some values stand on their own and jump out as priorities (such as health or family), while others will be somewhat related – for example, engagement, passion, joy, and purpose. To refine a group of similar values, choose the one that best represents the collective.

When you’ve refined your list to around six values (a challenge, I know!), it’s time to craft a statement of purpose. Think about what each value means to you and why it’s important. What significance does each hold in light of your past, present, and future? How could these values guide the way you’ll spend your time and energy moving forward?

Now, turn your thoughts into short statements that describe your values in action. For example, you may have chosen achievement, financial security, passion, personal growth, and community. One of your statements might look something like this: “I achieve in my area of work to make good money and provide security for my family. I do this while helping others to grow because I’m passionate about giving back and strengthening my community.” You should be able to write two to three strong statements you can regularly refer to as you go about making short- and medium-term decisions.

A former world champion aerial skier, Alisa Camplin made sporting history in 2002 as the first ever Australian woman to win gold at the Winter Olympics. After 18 years as a global corporate executive, Alisa now juggles a mix of sport, business, consulting, charity and governance roles. No stranger to physical and emotional trials, Alisa runs Resilience and High Performance programs to assist others in achieving their full potential. Awarded the prestigious Order of Australia medal, Alisa is passionate about mental wellbeing and helping people thrive. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.