Core Values: Examples of 150+ Personal Values + Core Values List PDF (2024)

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What’s important to you? What are your personal core values? Print out the core values list with over 150 personal values and define what’s important to you.

Core values or personal values are what you believe in and rely on as guiding principles for your life. They can be anything, from family to hard work to personal freedom. The core of who you are is defined by the core values that guide your every day life, decisions, and even your life’s purpose.

Core values can also be the guiding principles and beliefs of organizations and companies.

In this post, you can find a list of 192 core values (listed both in alphabetical order and by category) and 5 simple steps that together can be used to define and discover your personal core values and what’s important to you.

These core values lists can also help you define the core values of your organization or company.

Core values list (in alphabetical order)

Here’s a list of 192 common core values / examples of personal values in alphabetical order.

This list is not exhaustive and does not include all core values, but it’s pretty thorough and an excellent tool to define them.

• Abundance
• Acceptance
• Accomplishment
• Accountability
• Accuracy
• Achievement
• Adaptability
• Adventure
• Affection
• Alertness
• Ambition
• Assertiveness
• Attentive
• Authenticity
• Awareness

• Balance
• Beauty
• Boldness
• Bravery
• Brilliance
• Calmness
• Capable
• Careful
• Caring
• Certainty
• Challenge
• Charity
• Cleanliness
• Clear
• Clever
• Comfort
• Commitment
• Communication
• Community
• Compassion
• Competence
• Confidence
• Consistency
• Contentment
• Contribution
• Control
• Cooperation
• Courage
• Courtesy
• Creativity
• Credibility
• Curiosity

• Decisiveness
• Dedication
• Dependability
• Determination
• Devotion
• Dignity
• Discipline
• Diversity
• Efficiency
• Empathy
• Endurance
• Energy
• Enjoyment
• Enthusiasm
• Equality
• Ethical
• Excellence
• Excitement
• Experience
• Expertise
• Exploration

• Fairness
• Faith
• Fame
• Family
• Fearless
• Fidelity
• Fitness
• Focus
• Foresight
• Forgiveness
• Freedom
• Friendship
• Fun
• Generosity
• Giving
• Goodness
• Grace
• Gratitude
• Growth
• Happiness
• Hard Work
• Harmony
• Health
• Honesty
• Honor
• Humility
• Humor

• Imagination
• Independence
• Individuality
• Inner Harmony
• Innovation
• Insightful
• Inspiring
• Integrity
• Intelligence
• Intuitive
• Joy
• Justice
• Kindness
• Knowledge
• Lawful
• Leadership
• Learning
• Logic
• Love
• Loyalty

• Mastery
• Maturity
• Meaning
• Moderation
• Motivation
• Obedience
• Openness
• Optimism
• Order
• Organization
• Originality
• Passion
• Patience
• Patriotism
• Peace
• Playfulness
• Poise
• Positivity
• Power
• Productivity
• Professionalism
• Prosperity
• Purpose
• Quality
• Recognition
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Restraint
• Results-oriented
• Rigor

• Security
• Self-actualization
• Self-development
• Self-reliance
• Self-respect
• Selfless
• Sensitivity
• Serenity
• Service
• Sharing
• Silence
• Simplicity
• Sincerity
• Skillfulness
• Solitude
• Speed
• Spirituality
• Stability
• Status
• Stewardship
• Strength
• Structure
• Success
• Support
• Surprise
• Sustainability

• Teamwork
• Temperance
• Thankful
• Thorough
• Thoughtful
• Timeliness
• Tolerance
• Toughness
• Traditional
• Tranquility
• Transparency
• Trustworthy
• Understanding
• Uniqueness
• Unity
• Vision
• Vitality
• Wealth
• Welcoming
• Winning
• Wisdom

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Download personal core values list PDF (in alphabetical order)

Download the core values list PDF in alphabetical order and use it to help you discover and define your core values. You can download the printable list of values by clicking the download link under the images.

Want the personal core values lists by categories instead? You can find them next + The Core Values List by category PDFs.

Core values list (by category)

Here’s a list of 192 personal core values / examples of personal values by category.

These categories are not carved in stone, and some personal values may fit into more than one core value category. So please use these categories as a guide and not as an absolute method of defining core values.

Core values category: Achievement & Accomplishment

• Abundance
• Accomplishment
• Achievement
• Challenge
• Credibility
• Determination
• Endurance
• Fame
• Growth
• Mastery
• Power
• Prosperity
• Recognition
• Self-actualization
• Status
• Success
• Wealth
• Winning

Core values category: Creativity & Curiosity

• Adventure
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Exploration
• Imagination
• Innovation
• Intuitive
• Openness
• Originality
• Uniqueness

Core values category: Enthusiasm & Enjoyment

• Enjoyment
• Enthusiasm
• Excitement
• Fun
• Humor
• Playfulness
• Surprise

Core values category: Feelings & Mindset

• Acceptance
• Comfort
• Compassion
• Contentment
• Empathy
• Grace
• Gratitude
• Happiness
• Inspiring
• Joy
• Kindness
• Love
• Optimism
• Passion
• Poise
• Positivity
• Respect
• Sensitivity
• Serenity
• Thankful
• Thoughtful

Core values category: Health & Energy

• Energy
• Fitness
• Health
• Vitality

Core values category: Independence & Freedom

• Freedom
• Independence
• Individuality

Core values category: Integrity & Principle

• Accountability
• Authenticity
• Commitment
• Dependability
• Dignity
• Ethical
• Fairness
• Honesty
• Honor
• Integrity
• Responsibility
• Self-respect
• Sincerity
• Transparency
• Trustworthy

Core values category: Knowledge & Intelligence

• Brilliance
• Clever
• Decisiveness
• Expertise
• Foresight
• Insightful
• Intelligence
• Knowledge
• Learning
• Logic
• Vision
• Wisdom

Core values category: Order & Stability

• Accuracy
• Careful
• Certainty
• Cleanliness
• Consistency
• Control
• Justice
• Lawful
• Obedience
• Order
• Organization
• Security
• Stability
• Structure
• Thorough
• Timeliness
• Traditional

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Core values category: Presence & Mindfulness

• Alertness
• Attentive
• Awareness
• Beauty
• Calmness
• Clear
• Focus
• Silence
• Simplicity
• Solitude
• Tranquility

Core values category: Skillfulness & Competence

• Capable
• Competence
• Efficiency
• Excellence
• Experience
• Hard Work
• Leadership
• Motivation
• Productivity
• Professionalism
• Quality
• Results-oriented
• Self-development
• Skillfulness
• Speed

Core values category: Spirituality & Harmony

• Adaptability
• Balance
• Courtesy
• Devotion
• Faith
• Forgiveness
• Goodness
• Harmony
• Humility
• Inner Harmony
• Maturity
• Meaning
• Moderation
• Patience
• Peace
• Purpose
• Spirituality
• Understanding

Core values category: Strength & Courage

• Ambition
• Assertiveness
• Boldness
• Bravery
• Confidence
• Courage
• Dedication
• Discipline
• Fearless
• Restraint
• Rigor
• Self-reliance
• Strength
• Temperance
• Tolerance
• Toughness

Core values category: Togetherness & Unity

• Affection
• Caring
• Charity
• Communication
• Community
• Contribution
• Cooperation
• Diversity
• Equality
• Family
• Fidelity
• Friendship
• Generosity
• Giving
• Loyalty
• Patriotism
• Selfless
• Service
• Sharing
• Stewardship
• Support
• Sustainability
• Teamwork
• Unity
• Welcoming

Donwload core values list PDF (by category)

Download the core values list PDF by category and use it to help you discover and define your core values. You can download the printable list of values by clicking the download link under the images.

How to use the core values list?

Use the list of values to help you discover core values that are important and relevant to you.

• Choose 10-15 values first (max) that resonate with you and you feel that describe you and your beliefs. And try to narrow them down even further until you’ve chosen 5 personal values.
• Alternately, you can exclude first the ones that don’t resonate with you and see what’s left. And then start narrowing those down until you get to 5 (to 10) core values.

How core values factor into your life?

Core values can impact you in a big way. They decide what direction your life will take and what types of decisions you’ll make, both large and small.

For example, personal values might be the driving force behind asking for a promotion. It’s also good if your values are aligned with the company core values when making career choices.

And having similar or same values in a relationship can help you through difficult times.

Why core values are important?

Core values help you understand where you stand and serve as a reference point for what you believe in, which affects how you behave and make choices.

Core values can be both personal and universal to you as an individual. They can help you determine who you’d like to become in life.

It’s essential to think about your core values so that they can guide you through the decisions that lead up to or impact where your life is going.

Knowing what core values you stand for allows you to make better decisions about potential jobs or activities because it provides guidance when faced with making new choices.

For example, knowing core values helps when deciding between two different jobs because you can consider which core values align with each job and then choose the one that provides a better fit for your core values.

As you go through life, core values steer you in specific directions and often leave you feeling happy with your chosen path.

How core values are determined?

Core values are driven by beliefs that a person has about themselves or the world around them. These core values aren’t necessarily decided on once and never changed from then on; they can change as your life changes or as your beliefs about yourself change.

People often first discover core values through activities or experiences in life, such as a specific person or event. Many core values are also found through introspection.

Core value definition

Core values (also called personal values) are an important principle or belief that guides one’s actions and decisions. It’s what is important to you. It’s what you genuinely value, regardless of whether it is objectively or socially valuable.

Personal core values are invisible and intangible, but they actually have a significant impact on your life. It goes beyond thinking about them while making decisions; core values are used in so many of your daily choices and behaviors, whether you consciously think about it or not.

3 Examples of personal core values

Here are a few examples of personal values:

Example 1: Fairness

If you value fairness, then you won’t cheat on a test or game, even if no one would find out. You’ll probably try to fairly divide resources or money with other people in your life. And most likely, you won’t steal something from another person, even if they won’t know, and it could have helped you out a lot. I

Example 2: Honesty & Integrity

If some of your personal core values are honesty and integrity, it means you wouldn’t lie, and you would always do your best to keep a promise and do the right thing.

In an employment situation, core values of honesty and integrity mean a person is unlikely to commit fraud or steal money from their place of work.

Example 3: Compassion

If your core value is compassion, it means you would always want to help someone in need. You might even be willing to donate your money and time to charities because you believe it is important to care for others.

FAQ

In conclusion

Knowing core values can guide you through important decisions, so it’s important to think about them before making decisions. After a core values discovery process, core values will guide you and provide direction when you need it the most.

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