Nailing a Niche: Knowing Who You Are and Where Your Values Lie

If you’ve been on the internet in the last few days, hours, weeks, months, chances are you have heard the word niche. I honestly struggle to pronounce that word every damn time. Aesthetic, energy, style, fit, with new words popping up each day- it’s hard to keep up. They are all words used to describe who you are and what makes you, YOU. I almost included the word values, but to me, that word has a stronger, deeper meaning.

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To me, my values are the core of my being- what shapes my decisions and life. I went on a retreat in September put on by Jessica Frew of The Bold Logic. She hosts the “Husband-in-Law” Podcast with her current husband and ex husband- and she is AWESOME. (BTW- Her podcast is linked below👇) While on the Boldly You retreat, one of the activities we did included looking through a list of values, highlighting all of the ones that spoke to us. We then took some time throughout the retreat to revisit our values, narrow them down to our top priorities in order to come up with our own set of “value statements”. Once you really reflect on your own personal value statements, you can use those to inform all of your decisions and life choices.

I’m not sure at what point in my life I started struggling to make decisions. Over the last few years though, I really feel like I lost my true sense of self. I had no idea what made me happy. I remember realizing this and crying on the couch for an hour afterward. I’ve been doing a lot of work through therapy, processing, and an entire re-prioritization of my life lately. Going to this retreat was a fantastic way to reset and refocus my energy on where it needs to go in life.

Some examples of value statements include:

I show my body love by taking care of it through exercise, nutrition, and getting enough sleep. I take care of it because I love it and not because I am trying to change it.

I strive to give grace and compassion to myself, my friends, and my family.

I seek to be inclusive of every individual, to understand others and want them to feel seen and heard.

😂 Can you tell which one of those three is the one that I wrote? 😂 I also did this exercise for my “business”. That is definitely not the right word for what I do, I just haven’t found the right one yet. Let me know if anyone has any better words. The word list I used for my business one is here:

The top value words that meant the most to my tutoring and Barefoot and Burntout? Authenticity, accountability, balance, compassion, collaboration, curiosity, determination, fairness, growth, happiness, joy, justice, love, peace, success. I then used those words to create some value statements to put on the About Page.

Have you ever stopped to reflect on your values and create value statements? Let me know in the comments, or email me at barefootandburntout@gmail.com I look forward to hearing from you!