What matters in your life?

How often have you come home, frustrated by the events of the day? Being stuck in traffic again? Invited to another meeting that will go on and on? Staying late for a “just a minute” request by your boss while needing to be home with your family?

It seems easier to rattle about how upset you are than to see what really matters. Do you remember what that is?

This week

This week made me realise what mattered to me once again. The daughter of one my friends – she just turned 1 in December – is undergoing chemo. On Monday, a friend of mine has been given his redundancy letter. Yesterday, the mother of one of my friends passed away.

It’s just mind-blowing what can happen in such a short period of time. 

What matters

This week made me realise what’s important to me. Rather than being trapped in the corporate rat race, chasing the money that’s never enough, I value freedom and independence.

Fairness is pretty high up there too, as my character strength survey reveals year over year. It’s not always easy to articulate my concerns, yet, when I see certain individuals being treated unjust, I can’t just watch the world go by. I needed to take action!

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time identifying what matters for me. My values have slightly changed over time, as it is expected for most of us.

Do you know what is important to you? If you have not reviewed your very own values, take some time to complete this activity: The Values-List gives you just below 100 different values. You can circle or tick the ones appealing to you.

As values can be situational, you can review the list for you at work and use another copy for your life at home.

Living according to what matters

Once you know what matters to you, you can stop sweating the small stuff and focus on the important stuff. Though does stuff have to be things or couldn’t it be people, relationships, experiences, etc? You alone decide what matters to you.

Regardless of what matters to you, it’s universally accepted that us not living in line with our values leads to frustration, irritation and dissatisfaction.

Find out in part 2 of this post what practical steps you can take to implement your values into everyday of your life.

Until next time,
Agni