When I honor my core values I feel grounded, vibrant, and alive. When I don’t honor my core values, I feel imbalanced and uneasy. Sometimes even physically uncomfortable.

I believe that getting clear on our core values and honoring them is an integral part of the journey to living a happy, fulfilling life. In order to honor our values, of course, we need to know what they are. In an effort to become crystal clear on my own values, I finally compiled a list.

Here are my top 10 core values (in no particular order) and what they mean to me:

1. Clarity – know who I am, what I want, what I’m about, and why I’m here
2. Self awareness – know myself intimately (strengths, weaknesses, passions, quirks)
3. Authenticity – be unapologetically me, vulnerable, raw, real, own it completely
4. Personal freedom – be in charge of my own experience, know I always have a choice
5. Radical responsibility –  be 100% responsible for my thoughts, actions, and impact
6. Radical honesty – say what I mean and mean what I say, be direct, and be clear
7. Respect – release judgment, be curious and compassionate, accept people as they are
8. Connection – seek out, embrace, create genuine connections with others, soul to soul
9. Simplicity – let go of what isn’t serving me to create space for what’s most important
10. Adventure – choose to make my life an adventure every day, spread joy, be playful

This list will continue to evolve as I do. But understanding what I deeply believe guides me to actively create a life aligned with who I am. When I take a wrong turn, I simply refer back to my core values, reevaluate, then course correct.

Through this process, I am learning to 1) quickly recognize when my values are being stepped on,  2) calmly set boundaries and stand up for myself, and 3) be true to myself most, if not all, of the time.