How to define your personal values | Mayo Clinic On Human Optimization E61

Life offers plenty of nice, concrete, mostly attainable goals for us to chase and boxes to check – good job, life partner, maybe a house, maybe kids. But that’s also the classic recipe for a midlife crisis: you work your butt off to get a bunch of those boxes checked only to find yourself exhausted and unfulfilled. Or wondering, “Now what?” So, how do we ground our goals to make sure we’re putting our energy into things that really matter? This episode, we are joined by Bridget Berkland, Manager of Employee Well-being at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She’s a National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach, and she’s here to help us learn to combat burnout by aligning our daily actions with our deepest personal and professional values. The three big questions we discuss with Bridget are: 1. What are personal values and what role do they play in our daily life? 2. Why do so many of us struggle to define our values and put them into action? 3. What practical steps can we take to clearly articulate our values and then use them to drive meaning and inform behavior in our lives? Learn more about On Human Optimization and access Pod-Club questions at https://ce.mayo.edu/content/mayo-clinic-human-optimization Instagram: @MayoHumanOptimization YouTube: On Human Optimization - YouTube Email: optimize@mayo.edu Sign up to receive Mayo Clinic Press emails. Find us online at Mayo Clinic Press for more health and wellness articles, podcasts and books. Do you have feedback, questions or topic suggestions? Email us at mcppodcasts@mayo.edu. 0:00 Living values during adversity 0:17 Welcome to On Human Optimization 0:42 Aligning goals with what matters 2:02 Defining personal values clearly 3:01 Values versus preferences and goals 5:27 Values, purpose, vision, and mission 9:18 Four qualities of strong values 11:42 Benefits of well-defined values 15:00 Values, well-being, and performance 18:22 Why defining values feels difficult 19:33 Common mistakes with personal values 22:38 Aspirational versus actionable values 24:02 Managing tension between competing values 26:03 Practical steps to identify values 28:47 Creating being goals from values 29:14 Testing, editing, and reviewing values 31:33 What values teach about identity 36:13 Living values in everyday life 38:48 Key takeaways and final challenge 41:56 Resources and closing thoughts From Mayo Clinic to your inbox (free): https://mayocl.in/3e71zfi Visit Mayo Clinic: https://mayocl.in/2COVmlm Connect with Mayo Clinic: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayoclinic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayoclinic X: https://x.com/MayoClinic Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mayoclinic