Your Core Values
2MINMAY 28, 2025
[ FROM THE NOTEBOOK ]
Your internal compass when everyone else is giving directions
fig 2.1—YOUR CORE VALUESThe stuff that doesn't bend (even when life tries to break it)
Your core values are like your skeleton. You can't see them, but they hold everything else up.
They're the deeply held beliefs that make you... you.
They might shift slightly throughout different seasons of your life—maybe you cared more about adventure in your twenties and stability in your thirties—but the fundamental stuff?
That stays. Like that friend who calls you out when you're not being yourself—they're there whether you want them to be or not.
When you form an opinion, make a decision, or judge someone else's choices, you're either honoring or betraying your core values. There's no neutral ground here. You're either being yourself or pretending to be someone else.
When you form an opinion, make decisions, or pass judgment, you're either honoring or dishonoring your core values in the process. There's no neutral ground here.
fig 2.2Every choice comes with a receipt
We all make choices. All of us get to deal with the consequences.
Choose against your values, and you'll feel it in your bones. That gnawing feeling that something's off. That Sunday night scary that doesn’t go away on Monday. That constant background hum of "this isn't right."
Choose based on what actually matters to you—who you really are, not who you think you should be—and life starts flowing with the tide instead of fighting against it.
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." — William James
Your internal GPS (when everyone else is giving directions)
Knowing your core values offers crystal-clear insight into who you are. This should be your guide when the world gets noisy and everyone's telling you what you should want, what you should do, what you should become.
Your values are your internal compass. When you ignore them, you get lost. When you follow them, you might not always end up where you thought you'd go, but you'll end up where you belong.
The cost of compromise
Steve Jobs said it best: "I thought deeply about this. I ended up concluding that the worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and as we get a little more influence in the world is if we change our core values and start letting it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit."
That's the thing about core values—they're non-negotiable. The moment you start compromising them for convenience, for money, for approval, for anything—that's the moment you start losing yourself.
And trust me, finding your way back is a lot harder than staying true in the first place.
"Your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul." —John C. Maxwell