mental health

# 20 Values That Define Me As A Person: A Manifesto

by Beverly Blaine
May 3, 2017
Comments 10

What are the values that guide my life and actions? I have never sat down formally and defined them. Well actually, I’ve barely even passively reflected upon them. As someone with depression, I don’t often like to think deeply about myself because it usually leads to horrible and negative self-talk like “You are stupid” or “I hate myself.”

However, I have recently come to the conclusion that formally defining and occasionally studying your values can actually improve your mental health. Why? Well for one, we can often feel depressed when our actions or lifestyles are misaligned with our values. When our choices don’t make sense with our values, this can cause us to be demotivated and disengaged with life. So figuring out how we should be behaving according to our personal beliefs can lead to positive feelings and being our authentic selves can make us happier. And I’m all for happiness!

There is even a psychotherapy technique that does this called values clarification. Clarifying our values can help with decision-making and understanding ourselves better. Clarifying our values can give us a sense of purpose, as well as the tools to prioritize between competing interests. Finally, it can help you take control of your life and become an active participant in what happens to you.

Why I am I talking about values today? In Monday’s post, I said I was inspired to write a personal values manifesto by the Lilly Singh book “How To Be A Bawse.”

Here is my attempt to benefit from values clarification. I hope I inspire you to create your own!

Bev’s Values Manifesto

1. Positivity: Cultivate gratitude and joy whenever possible.

2. Kindness: Do not engage in negative gossiping

3. Respect: Do not mock or stereotype other people based on their gender, ethnicity, ability or sexuality.

4. Continuous improvement: Treat all tasks as learning opportunities

5. Strategic: Look at the bigger picture when engaging in small tasks.

6. Accountability: I believe that I should be held responsible for my actions and try to be as transparent as possible about both successes and mistakes.

7. Community: I strongly believe in the importance of collaboration and co-operation to make a project or goal succeed.

8. Dependability: Through my actions, I want to show my friends, family and co-workers that they can rely on me in good times and hard times.

9. Empathy: When interacting with another person, I need to let go of my preconceptions and put myself in their shoes to understand their goals, desires and needs.

10. Equity: Being truly fair in how I treat people. Instead of treating everyone the same, I want to give people what they need to be successful.

11. Excitement: Build enthusiasm for both important events and mundane tasks and show it to others.

12. Hard work: Put in the work required to make a project or relationship successful, but then go above and beyond.

13. Making a difference: Engage in activities that change the world in a positive way.

14. Resourcefulness: Do my best to find unique ways to solve problems.

15. Teamwork: Help others in whatever way I can to accomplish their own goals.

16. Thoroughness: Do not be lazy and do everything possible to achieve a goal.

17. Creativity: Use my imagination and artistic skills to help myself and others achieve their goals.

18. Family-oriented: Ensure I devote time to interacting with my parents and sisters.

19. Friendship-oriented: Showing friends through my actions that I have their back.

20. Compassion: Concern myself with the well-being of other humans and demonstrate that concern through kind words and actions that fulfill their needs.

### Share this:

- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

### Like this:

Like Loading...

## 10 comments on “20 Values That Define Me As A Person: A Manifesto”

1. myhempnowonline
   May 3, 2017

   Reblogged this on My Hemp Now and commented:
   Great article, thanks!

   Like Liked by 1 person

   Reply
2. myhempnowonline
   May 3, 2017

   Really enjoyed. Excellent advice!

   Like Liked by 1 person

   Reply
3. PurpleOwl
   May 3, 2017

   This is such a good idea, I loved reading your manifesto. I should create my own.

   Like Liked by 1 person

   Reply
   - Beverly Blaine
     May 3, 2017

     Do it!!!

     Like Liked by 1 person

     Reply
4. Samantha Melvin
   May 3, 2017

   I love this! I should probably do this, but the first thing that came to mind was “I should have my students do this!” I work at an adult high school where many of the students have different kinds of barriers that influence their attitudes. I think that this would be incredibly beneficial to meet them as individuals and inspire some autonomy while they pursue their high school diploma. Next term, I am doing this! (And over summer break, I’ll make my own.)Thank you for sharing!

   Like Like

   Reply
   - Beverly Blaine
     May 4, 2017

     Amazing idea!!! I think your students would benefit for sure. If you post yours online, let me know!

     Like Like

     Reply
5. unhingedandunenlightened
   May 3, 2017

   Definitely a great idea! Loved reading yours, am now considering doing my own. Thanks for the inspiration!

   Like Like

   Reply
   - Beverly Blaine
     May 3, 2017

     You’re welcome! I totally encourage you to do it. It was fun!!

     Like Liked by 1 person

     Reply
6. Rose Herscovitch
   May 3, 2017

   Hello!

   I know that I have mentioned before about how well you write and with so such clarity.
   I want to say how much I enjoy your posts that you write and also the ones that you choose to post from other sources.

   I am very proud of your honesty and courage.

   This post is very good. Also the other posts are great.
   Congratulations on reaching over 2,000 followers!

   I love you very much.

   With love,
   Mom❤️

   Sent from my iPad

   Like Like

   Reply
7. Midtown Psychiatry and TMS Center
   May 4, 2017

   Thank you for visiting my site and like my post.

   Like Like

   Reply

### Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)
Name (required)
Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Google+ account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Post to
Cancel
%d bloggers like this: