What matters
Your values are what drives you. The most urgent voices you hear are your values speaking to you. Your values are there for you when things are tough, and they tell you when you’re aligned and on the right track. They can be a source of strength, pride and direction.
You may not have spent a lot of time thinking explicitly about your values: what matters most to you, and how it feels when your values are in conflict. A little time thinking about your values, and why they are important to you, can help you find your ground.
When things are going well, you are aligned with your values. You know what matters, and that makes it easy to make choices that keep you aligned. You may value family and financial stability–a role where you can balance your family and work while earning enough to achieve financial security is going to feel great. From this position, you can stretch and find space to develop new skills and take risks on that aligned path.
Many people in international development were able to find this space to some degree before 2025. While work wasn’t always easy, many of your core values may have aligned with your work. You could see yourself in the work you did, and it may have felt like this was a big part of your identity–this often happens when you are deeply value-aligned.
When things are hard, you may feel the pull of conflicting values, or you may feel out of alignment. This is a deeply unsettling feeling and it can feel as though your ground and sense of direction has abandoned you. You may be unable to find work. You may have a role that does not mesh with your values, and these are hard voices to ignore.
I frequently hear from people who are straddling split values, and this makes choices difficult. For example:
You may be honoring your value of financial stability, but at the cost of mission-driven work
You may be honoring mission-driven work, but at the cost of financial stability
You may be honoring your value of mission-driven impact, but feel stuck in a job that doesn’t allow you to honor other values like respect, family, challenge, or personal growth
You may be honoring your value of family, but you may not be able to achieve financial stability
You may be honoring a value of gratitude for what you have, but not honoring values of growth, self-respect or financial stability
Most often, I hear the pull of financial stability, a value that infrequently came up before 2025 in mission-driven leaders. The state of the job market and continued instability forces a deep look at what matters to us in financial stability. Everyone’s financial situation is different, and so is your relationship to money. You aren’t able to make the best decisions for yourself if you don’t understand both your financial picture and what matters to you about money and financial stability.
You may be in a role that honors your well understood financial goals and values, but feel unable to address your other core values. Naming your values and looking at how you may be able to address those, or when you can address them can be powerful. You don’t have to solve every problem to feel embodied, grounded and aligned. You can know what is off, and understand that you still stand on values that matter, and that you have choices big and small that help you navigate your world each day.
I invite you to start by naming your values. Look at them and examine:
What matters to you and what values are you able to honor right now?
What values are you not honoring now?
How does this affect how you approach each day?
If it is helpful, I have a workbook on this topic which I offer for free. Just drop me a line at cynthia@focuscoaching.net. No sales or strings attached.
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