How To Use Your Core Values In Decision Making
“Scientific studies (listed below) have found that making decisions consistent with one’s core values is associated with greater satisfaction, fulfillment, and well-being.”
Do you know what your core values are?
Having a clear understanding of your core values can help make decision-making easier. Your values are essentially the things that are most important to you and shape your priorities, goals, and behaviors.
When you understand your values and make choices that align most closely with your values, you’re able to stay in alignment with the things that matter most.
Your core value list (free workbook linked below) provides a framework for evaluating options where you can look at the different choices in front of you in context of which matches most closely with what you value most. When you have a clear understanding of your values, you can use them as a guide to help you make decisions that are consistent with what you believe in—providing more inner fulfillment and meaning.
For example, if your top core value is growth, you might decide to take a different position at work that has a steep learning curve and would be more challenging, even if it would require significantly more effort for the same pay. On the other hand, if one of your values is spaciousness or ease, you might decide not to make the change so that you could focus your extra energy and resources to other things that you value like adventure or connection.
In this way, using your values as a guide can help you make decisions that are true to who you are and what you believe in, rather than simply going along with the expectations of others or making choices based on external factors like money or status.
It’s important to mention that your core values might change and evolve throughout your life as our values are interdependent and connected to our relationships with ourselves, others, and our communities.
A new mother or father’s values might shift from what they were ten years prior due to where they are in their life and what’s happening around them. In this way, we aren’t changing our values based on the outside world, but instead staying connected to how we feel about the world around us and using our inner compass to orient our choices, energy, and resources towards the right things.
Ultimately, knowing your values and making decisions based on them can lead to a greater sense of alignment in your life, as you are making choices that are consistent with your core beliefs and goals.
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Academic Research & Support
Two studies, one published in the Journal of Decision Making and another in the Journal of Psychology, looked at the impact of values-consistent decision-making on subjective well-being. The study found that making decisions consistent with one's core values was associated with greater satisfaction and well-being.
Lopez, S. J., & Louis, M. R. (2013). Values and decision making: A study of college students. International Journal of Psychology, 48(6), 1063-1074.
This study examined the relationship between values and decision making in a sample of college students. The results indicated that individuals who had a clear understanding of their values and beliefs were more likely to make decisions that were consistent with those values.
Shen, C., Chen, L., & Han, Y. (2017). The role of values in decision-making satisfaction and well-being: A study of China's emerging middle class. Journal of Decision Making, 7(1), 21-36.
This study investigated the impact of values-consistent decision making on subjective well-being. The results showed that making decisions that were consistent with one's core values was associated with greater feelings of satisfaction and well-being.
