Happiness isn’t something to chase — it’s something to uncover.

Happiness — or better yet, a high quality of life experience (QLX) — isn’t something to chase. It’s something to uncover. This insight can be applied to any challenge.

The following conversation embodies many of the core principles we stand for — and practice — at QLX.

A summary of some of the points discussed:

Happiness is your natural state.

You don’t need to add anything from the outside — you need to remove what blocks it. Mo’s story shows that even with success and wealth, true happiness requires inner alignment. At QLX, we focus on helping you reconnect with this natural state rather than chasing external achievements.

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.
Lao Tzu

Focus on internal success metrics.

Ali embodied clarity and inner peace early on. He knew what mattered and didn’t need external symbols to feel fulfilled. We guide people to reconnect with this kind of deep self-knowledge and live what truly matters.

Life holds paradoxes.

Joy and sadness can coexist; one shapes the other. We help people develop emotional intelligence so they can hold these contrasts without losing balance.

There is no such thing as work-life balance – it is all life. The balance has to be within you.
Sadhguru

Reserve time for reflection.

Mo’s journaling practice of reviewing stressors and removing them mirrors our focus on conscious self-check-ins and designing life with intention.

Start at the root.

Rather than treating symptoms, focus on the real cause. We do the same: before tackling a challenge, we first address the underlying mental models that created it.

We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that created them.
Albert Einstein

Change the way you look at things.

Experiencing happiness depends more on your perception and expectations, than on endless pursuit.

At QLX, we help you understand your brain, shift mental models, and reframe challenges.

Focus on the present moment.

Negative emotions often come from living in the past or future.

Presence is essential for a high quality of life — especially during challenges. Even our website is qlx.now as a daily reminder of this principle to ourselves.

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The future depends on what we do in the present.
Mahatma Gandhi

Clear mental noise.

Mo’s “meet Becky” technique matches our approach to reserving moments for mental housecleaning. This mental distance is crucial for clarity and self-leadership.

Create space between stimulus and response.

Look at what you do, think, and feel without judgment. Become more aware of the mental models that you use to evaluate your version of reality. Build better mental models and change your quality of life experience.

One of the most decisive events in your life is when you discover you can put space between who you are, your thoughts, and your emotions. You become present as the awareness behind the thoughts and emotions and understand where they are coming from.
QLX

Mission over targets.

Shift from rigid goals to living in alignment with your mission. At QLX, we encourage focusing on consistent effort, without attachment to outcomes.

Service beyond self.

Ali’s life embodied service and contribution beyond individual recognition. We believe deeply in serving something larger — the true foundation for a meaningful life and business.

Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. We only pursue goals to cause ourselves to expand and grow.

Conclusion

Knowing these principles is one thing. Living them is quite another!

Our personal transformation programs are designed to help you practice these ideas daily, tackle your real challenges, and experience a high quality of life — every day.

Work with a QLX Transformer to support you on that journey.

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Discover your core values in 20 minutes or less

Being clear on your core values is a powerful tool to guide your decisions and behaviors. This insight explores why your core values matter and provides an interactive tool to uncover and align with them.

By the end of the process, you’ll know what your core values are and how they can help you make better decisions and lead a more authentic life.

Table of Contents

What are core values and why do they matter?

Your core values are a set of fundamental principles you value so much that you use them as a compass to guide your personal life, your team, or even your entire organization.

They form the standard for your behavior, for your products and services, and for how people are expected to interact with one another.

It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.

For example, your personal core values could be responsibility, curiosity, respect, harmony, and excellence.

Your core values are not so much about what you put on paper but how you actually conduct yourself daily.

For example, you might say that honesty is one of your core values, but if you frequently lie to other people, it clearly is not. You can often tell from someone’s actual behavior what his or her real core values are.

Your core values emerge from your personal backstory, experiences, and personality type. They describe how you wish to conduct yourself as a person, team, or business.

You can set core values on a personal, team, or organizational level:

Levels of core values
Core values can be defined on multiple levels

When the core values on one level are incompatible with the core values on another level, there is friction.

For example: if you value honesty but work for an organization that cheats behind customers’ backs, it might be time to change employers.

A core value is thus an expression of an ideal that you try to live up to. You might not always succeed at this, but these situations offer an opportunity for reflection and improvement.

When you manage a business or a group of people, it’s important that the core values and their associated behaviors are clear to everyone.

Core values can be used for decision-making in situations like hiring and firing. For example, if someone doesn’t live up to the values of the company, they are no longer a good fit for the organization.

The core values of an organization should not only be clear to the employees, but also to everyone the business interacts with, like partners or clients. 

Customers who like your values will be attracted to your brand, your products, and your services.

Core values in everday life

Some ideas to make your core values come alive:

You will remind yourself of the ideal principles that you try to live up to, you will render better service and create a positive impact on the rest of the world.

Core values examples

Examples of personal core values

Below are the possible core values of some well-known fictional characters.

Note how changing even one of these core values to one that doesn’t fit the character would be immediately noticeable.

In fact, fans of popular stories are often disappointed when the core values of their favorite characters are not respected when the story is adapted for the big screen.

Frodo (The Lord of The Rings)

Frodo's core values could be altruism, benevolence, commitment, compassion, and honesty.

Yoda (Star Wars)

Yoda's core values could be awareness, responsibility, wisdom, encouragement, simplicity, and peace.

Neo (The Matrix)

Neo's core values could be truth, teamwork, perseverance, skillfulness, and reliability.

Translating core values into specific behaviors

It’s essential to describe what each of your values means to you personally in terms of specific behaviors (see also our core values creator).

For example, in Frodo’s case, altruism could mean that he always wants to be kind and helpful to other people.

For Yoda, peace could mean that he always seeks to act in harmony with the laws of the universe and only resorts to violence if there is no other option.

Examples of organizational core values

Experience Center Holistic Approach

Evermove's Core Values

Growth, integrity, leadership, strategy, and health.

Read more about the meaning of these values in our organization

Apple's core values

Accessibility, education, environment, inclusion, privacy, supplier responsibility. Apple has a separate page dedicated to each one of its values.

Disney

Cleanliness, friendliness, quality, innovation, and storytelling.

Steve Jobs on the importance of core values

The worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and more influence is if we change our core values and start letting it slide. I’d rather quit than do that.​

Core values and your personal growth journey

Getting clear on your core values is one of the first steps on your journey of personal growth.

They are an essential tool to navigate the process between where you are and where you want to go.

You don’t need to do or have anything to set your core values. They are a part of who you are. 

Core values Fundamental Pyramid
Your core values are fundamental to your personal growth journey.
  • 1

    Self-awareness

    The goal of personal growth is to develop and express yourself. You must be clear on your strengths, weaknesses, purpose, core values and their associated behaviors. You can't express what you don't have.

  • 2

    Vision and mission

    You need to have something to express yourself toward. This is your moving vision that is emotionally pulling you forward. Your mission is what you are going to do specifically to move closer to your vision.

  • 3

    Daily actions

    You set objectives, define projects and to-do's to guide your daily actions. These are the steps you take to accomplish your mission, move closer to your vision, and express yourself.

Core Values Creator Tool

We have created a Core Values Creator tool, which guides you through the following step-by-step process:

  • 1

    Select the core values that resonate with you

    We've created a list of about 300 core values

  • 2

    Drag and drop the values that you selected into different themes

    You can define a maximum of 5 themes.

  • 3

    Write a brief definition for each theme

    Describe in your own words what each theme stands for

  • 4

    Describe behaviors for each theme

    Describe 3 concrete behaviors for each theme that would be an expression of you living out those core values.

  • 5

    Export your results

    Save your core values and associated behaviors as a pdf file

  • Refer to your list often

    Put your list where you can see it and read it every day for 30 days. You'll have changed by the time you finish this process.

Tutorial

Interactive tool

Switch to pc or laptop

Our Core Values Creator has a lot of drag-and-drop functionalities that don't work well on a mobile device. Please switch to a bigger screen to access the tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are no rules for this. It would make sense to set enough core values to guide your daily behavior but not so many that you can’t remember or honor them.

From our experience, defining somewhere close to five core values is ideal for practical use.

Core values are not the same as character traits, but some character traits can evolve into core values.

For example, if you are a very honest person, honesty could be one of the values you try to honor at all times.

Yes, your core values can evolve as you become more experienced or mature, but they do so slowly.

It’s also possible that their meaning or associated behaviors become refined over time.

The importance of explicitly setting your core values is underestimated.

They are your standards for decision-making, for how you behave, for the quality and characteristics of your products, services, and more.

Share your thoughts and core values

We’d love to learn what your core values are and how you put them into practice. If you want to share them, or if you have questions, please leave a comment below.

You may also share the link to this Core Values Creator with others.

We hope that our tool and this information were helpful to you.

Thank you for reading, keep moving forward!

EN

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