Cultivating Core Values for Self-Awareness, College Programs & Career Paths

The Importance of Core Values

Embarking on college programs and potential career paths is thrilling yet daunting. Luckily, knowing your unique set of core values can help shape your decisions, aspirations, and ability to overcome challenges. Core values serve as an inner compass, guiding you through life. The central values you hold in your late teens and early twenties will hopefully evolve with every decade of your life. This evolution signifies growth!

A person's values and temperament help determine which life lanes are a good fit. Here are two dozen values to play with; there are a zillion more, but for this guide, let's choose one or two throughout your high school and college career. Your foundational values have already been set, but this doesn’t mean you can’t add new ones or discard those that hold you back from your best self. Welcome to adulting, my dears. It’s hard.

List of Core Values: Identify the Ones That Speak to You Deeply

1. Integrity

2. Respect

3. Responsibility

4. Empathy

5. Excellence

6. Creativity

7. Innovation

8. Perseverance

9. Courage

10. Community

11. Honesty

12. Gratitude

13. Compassion

14. Learning

15. Diversity

16. Sustainability

17. Authenticity

18. Collaboration

19. Service

20. Fairness

21. Joy

22. Growth

23. Kindness

24. Leadership

Knowing your core values is a highly personal process. It is tied to your life experiences, relationships, and aspirations. Consider which values align with how you hope to design your future. Practicing different values will serve you well during the college application process and through future life transitions. If this is the first time you feel uncertain, like you’re feeling your way in the dark, please know that you are not alone. It’s all part of growing up.

Reflecting on Your Values

Think about nurturing your best self:

• Which values excite you the most?

• How do these values connect with your intended academic program and life goals?

• In what ways might these values shape your daily decisions and interactions?

  
  

Practicing Your Chosen Values

After you have chosen two or three, integrate these values into your daily life. For example, if you choose "Integrity," commit to honest behavior in your studies. This could mean avoiding plagiarism and being transparent with friends, parents, and potential new roommates. Let's imagine Service is one of your chosen values. You're thinking maybe pre-med, but you get nauseous and faint at the sight of blood. Perhaps Hotel and Hospitality services may suit you better.

Here are a few more practical steps to help cultivate your core self-awareness:

• Set Clear Intentions: If "Creativity" is one of your values, express yourself through weekly artistic projects or collaborate with like-minded peers.

• Engage in Activities: Join clubs that align with your values. If you value "Leadership," seek roles in student organizations or volunteer with organizations that allow you to guide others.

• Reflect Regularly: Evaluate how you live into your values on a seasonal basis. Consider recent moments when you acted in line with your values. You may already be nurturing new principles without knowing it. This reflective practice helps build emotional flexibility and the self-awareness to rule out specific career paths and lead you to more meaningful ones that best suit your personality.

  
  

EAE Helps You Get There

Your Roadmap to Self-Awareness

Cultivating your core values is essential to making mindful, deliberate choices. By choosing values that genuinely speak to you, you create an informed and purposeful direction for your academic and personal life. Embrace these values as guiding principles that empower you to reach your best self. As you navigate college admissions and beyond, remember that growth is a process. It continues to expand as you trust your decisions, shape your moral character, and design your life.

The Journey of Adulting

By thoughtfully nurturing a new value from time to time, you are adulting in the best possible way! This journey is not just about academics; it’s about becoming the person you aspire to be.

Stress Less with EAE

As you prepare your college application, circle back to me, Dr. B, to enhance your narrative writing and ensure your best submission possible.

I founded Effective Admissions Essays to empower young adults with proactive mindsets, enabling you to tackle complex writing tasks in manageable increments. With my actionable routines in place, student writing muscles are better conditioned to sustain collegiate coursework. 

EAE's Remote Edits help you get there!

xx

Dr. B