Aligning Action to Values: A Conscious Educator's GPS

How did you get here? What drives your decisions? How do we make choices? The answer may not be as complex as you think...

Whether we are conscious of them or not, our values drive our behaviors, our decisions, our lives. Values are our inner GPS: they guide us along life's path.

Values vs. Beliefs

Simply, values tend to stay constant, while beliefs can change. Values are broad, underpin all realms of our lives, and relatively stable. There's no difference between "professional values" and "personal values" when we live in full integrity.

For example: I believe that education can be transformative for individuals, and I value growth. Because I value growth, I am a teacher, I undertake professional development, I engage with spiritual ideas and practices, and I am curious about how to be a better person and professor. I used to believe that education was the best way to transform an individual's life; with more life experience, I now believe that education is one fundamental path to transformation, but not the only one. Beliefs may change over time; values tend to stay stable and influence our whole lives.

Values affect all of our decisions: what to major in, how to spend our time, our careers. I am a professor because I value growth, connection, autonomy, order, security, and creativity: all of these values are met in my career choice.

When our lives are not in alignment with our values, we suffer: when I worked on an auto assembly line, my value for security was met, but not my values for autonomy, creativity, or connection. Arguably, I was still experiencing growth, but there was a more pleasant way to live in line with my value for security and growth and my other values. I cried on my way to and from that job every day: this let me know I was out of alignment and needed to find a job that kept me in integrity with my values.

Moving Into Conscious Alignment: Values-Led Educational Practice

Conscious educators are aware of their values and make conscious decisions with full awareness of how values lead the way.

To start clarifying your values you might look at this list on Brené Brown's website. Try to narrow your list down to 12-15 at first, with a goal of eventually identifying your top two values. This process might take a few weeks or months, as you refine, reshuffle, and revise your list. You can lightly hold the idea of your top two values and see how it feels. You might find, for example, that some values can actually fall under another; in my process, I originally listed both "education" and "growth" until I realized that education was a subset of growth.

Understanding the value of money can help us get to grips with the values-identification process. Most of us "value" money - we have jobs that we spend most of our waking life performing so that we can earn money...but why? What is that money affords us? For some, the underlying value is "security", for others, "freedom". What is the value underneath our desire for money?

Dig deep and be as honest as you can with yourself as you define your values. It can help to work with a coach and talk it through with people close to you - parents, siblings, critical friends, and office mates can usually help us identify our values.

Understanding your values can help you make choices about your career, your leadership, and your teaching. We'll look at motivational needs in another post, but aligning your choices to your values is another key aspect of becoming a conscious educator, of moving from frazzled and overworked, to ease and joy.

If "creativity" is a core value, how might that show up in your educational practice? You might turn down offers for process-oriented committees, and volunteer for nascent projects instead. If "order" or "clarity" show up on your values list though, you might enjoy roles that focus on process and detail. There is no "right" or "wrong"; it's about aligning with what is important to you.

Values show up in our teaching, too. If you value "clarity", your teaching style might more linear and organized than the style of your colleague who values "spontaneity". If you value "connection", your classroom environment might have more peer-to-peer engagement than the class of your colleague who values "power".

Being clear on and conscious of our values lets us live an authentic life with integrity. We'll be more aware about why we make the choices we make. We can be transparent with our colleagues and students. This integrity and transparency will help us trust ourselves, and each other.

So What?

If you're curious about getting clear on your values to see how this transforms your work and life, you might wish to consider the following:

• What motivates you to make the choices you do? Why did you choose the job you have?

• How do you spend your time and money? Why is important to you about the way you spend these resources?

• Which places, tasks, roles, etc. leave you feeling empty or drained? Which value or values are not being met in those circumstances?

• What do you fight for? What makes you angry? What gets you "riled up"? Why?

• What are you doing when you feel "in the flow"? When do you feel truly happy or content? What is it about these moments that create this feeling for you? What value is being met?

• When have you been out of sorts or wanted to make a big change? Why?

• Have you ever had a "peak experience" that changed you or made you feel elated? What values were met here?

If you are ready to live a values-led life, to free up energy for what truly matters, I invite you to

• Get clear on your long and shortlist of core values by working with the questions above.

• Work through Brené Brown's "living into our values" worksheet, which you can download from her website.

• Talk to people you trust (e.g. close friends, family, trusted colleagues) about how they see you living in line with your values.

• Work with a coach or therapist to see how you can define and align to your values

• observe how your values show up in all areas of your life.

• Trying making a small changes to align to a core value and observe the results.

I'm glad you read this post today. I'm here to help.

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