KNOWING • Part 1: Understanding Your Core Values
Understanding yourself is not a one-time realization. It is a layered, ongoing process. One that involves three essential components working together beneath the surface of every decision you make: your values, your beliefs, and your principles.
Think of these not as abstract concepts, but as the inner architecture of your life. Like the operating software running quietly in the background, they shape how you see the world, how you make decisions, and ultimately, how you live.
Core Values
Values are your deepest convictions about what truly matters. They are not just words you admire. They are ideals you aspire to live by. Compassion, perseverance, creativity, honesty. These are not just nice ideas. They are anchors that help you navigate the day to day and aim your life toward something greater.
Your values often take root early. They are passed down, modeled by caregivers, or discovered in moments of joy and adversity. They guide your choices, help you prioritize what is right, and point you toward the life you want to live.
Core Beliefs
Beliefs go deeper. They answer the quiet question beneath everything you do: Who am I, really?
Formed through experience, culture, and relationship, these beliefs become the story you tell yourself about the world and your place in it. If you believe people are kind, you will likely approach them with trust. If you believe people are unsafe, you may stay guarded. If you believe you are valuable, you will extend care to yourself and others with confidence. If not, you may constantly feel like you are proving your worth.
Beliefs are often invisible, but they are powerful. They act as the lens through which you interpret your life, your relationships, and even your future.
Principles
This is where it gets practical.
Principles are the bridge between what you value and what you believe. They are the guidelines you choose to live by. If you value kindness and believe you are capable of offering it, you might adopt a principle like always listen before responding. If you value growth and believe change is possible, you may follow a principle like stay curious, even when it is hard.
Principles help you show up in alignment with your truest self. They help you translate intention into action. They are the playbook your life runs on, quietly shaping your response to challenge, conflict, and opportunity.
The Interplay
When your values set the direction, your beliefs write the narrative, and your principles shape the response, you begin to operate with clarity and alignment. That is the gift of this inner system.
The good news? It is not fixed.
This system evolves. As you grow, you are invited to evaluate what is true, release what no longer fits, and shape new patterns that better serve who you are becoming.
This is the work of self-awareness.
This is the path of transformation.
As you reflect, remember this: the person you are becoming is not waiting in some far-off future. They are already within you, waiting to be aligned, uncovered, and lived into