Module 3 · Knowing yourself · Lesson 3 of 6

Interests, values and what gives meaning

What you naturally pursue is a clue to what you value.

8 min read · Free — no account needed to read

The idea

What you naturally pursue — the topics you read about unprompted, the problems you keep noticing, the activities that make you lose track of time — is one of the best clues to what you value. Interests are not trivial; they are often values showing themselves.

Meaning tends to come from activities that connect to something you care about beyond the moment: people, a craft, a cause, learning, beauty. When you notice what gives you that sense of meaning, you learn which values are really yours, as opposed to ones you think you ought to hold.

Personal values are the qualities you want your life to express: honesty, curiosity, care, independence, fairness. They are best discovered by looking at what you already do when nobody is asking, and what moves or angers you.

Why it matters

Choosing directions that connect to your real interests and values makes effort feel less like force. People keep going longer at things that mean something to them.

See it happen

Tomás works in accounting. On weekends he fixes old bicycles for neighbours, and he reads repair forums at lunch.

The first read

He sees the bicycles as a hobby that has nothing to do with work or his future — just a way to relax.

With this idea

Noticing he loses hours to it, he asks what it gives him: making something work again, helping people directly. He values usefulness he can see. At work he moves toward helping small businesses fix their books, and it feels far more like his.

What changed

He read an interest as a clue to a value and let it guide his work.

Easy to get wrong

• Dismissing interests as unimportant because they do not earn money. They can still tell you what you value.
• Assuming you must turn every interest into a career. Some interests are best kept as the thing you love for its own sake.

What this rests on

Practical wisdom. A widely used way of working. Useful to try — not a scientific law.

• Carol Ryff — psychological well-being (1989) — A model of well-being with six parts: self-acceptance, growth, purpose, positive relationships, mastery of your surroundings and autonomy.

Try it: Follow the interest

1. Write three things you do or read about without anyone asking you to.
2. For each, write what it gives you — not what it is.
3. Look for a word that repeats. It may be a value.

Reflect

• What activities make you lose track of time?
• What problems do you repeatedly care about?

Use it in the coming days

Add one of the things you naturally pursue to My Passions this week, with a line on what it gives you.

Where to do it: My Passions

My Passions holds what you love for its own sake — often where your values show most clearly.