Core Values

I came across this article today on Psychology Today and, as I read it, I realized that I didn’t actually know what my specific core values were.

So I did an activity!

First, I took a HUGE list of core values and italicized the ones that fit me. Then, out of the italicized list, I broke them down into categories such as courage, creativity, feelings, spirituality, intelligence, etc. I did this just to get a feel of which areas carry more importance or more values. After that, I chose 8 values that I consider to be the most important and are, therefore, my core values.

So….my core values are:

Honesty
Logic & Reason
Empathy
Stability
Growth
Wisdom
Spirituality
Kindness

I love one of the quotes in the article from Psychology Today:

“…knowing your values is the royal road to self-knowledge because values choices both reveal and build character as you act on them.”

agave-background-botanical-1331734

Furthermore, I came across this article, which describes the building blocks of yourself: your V.I.T.A.L.S.

V: Values
I: Interests
T: Temperament
A: Around-the-Clock Activities (or Biorhythm)
L: Life Mission & Meaningful Goals
S: Strengths

Since I’m already on a roll, I’m going to dive into my VITALS!

Values are listed above.

Interests
Reading & writing
Graphic design (although I am inexperienced and still teaching myself)
Medicine

Temperament
Most people are a combination of the four temperaments that were described by the Greek physician Hippocrates: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, & Phlegmatic

My temperament is mainly melancholic with a hint of some qualities of the phlegmatic temperament. (No, melancholic does not mean I’m always sad, haha)
I’m an introvert and love to be by myself. I’m an extremely deep thinker and very analytical. I have a Type-A personality and am a perfectionist. I’m an organized person who wears her heart on her sleeve. I do get very anxious; however, I am very easy-going and quiet.

Around-the-Clock Activities (Biorhythm)
Generally, I am a morning person and have been ever since I can remember. Recently, my energy peaks have been all over the place. My motivation to do anything constantly goes up and down. Most of the time I have a huge desire to be motivated, but I never act on it. I don’t know why.

Life Mission & Meaningful Goals
In a general sense, my life mission is to help people. Struggling with mental illness my whole life has given me such a passion to find answers so others don’t have to go through anything similar. This is why I am so passionate about neuroscience. I don’t want to be a psychologist and give clients exercises that might help them. I want to get down to the biological basis of the issue – brain regions and neurotransmitters – but not in a pharmacological sense because that is just a band-aid…a life-long band-aid. In a more medicinal sense, neurosurgery gives me the ability to expand in who I am able to help: brain injuries, CTE, brain tumors, cancers, etc.

I’ve always struggled with finding my “passion”, but I believe I’ve found it. I could read about neuroscience and psychology all day and not get bored. I also get overly excited when someone starts talking about how the brain works or if they have questions regarding the subject.

Strengths
According to the Positivity Project, each person has the same 24 character strengths, but some are more prominent than others. My main strengths are: