The quiet pulse that shapes how we move through the world.
Sometimes steady, sometimes syncopated, but always there, underneath everything we do.
We like to think values are things we have, but I’ve learned they’re really things we practice.
They live in the micro-choices we make when no one’s watching.
In the way we respond to a colleague under pressure.
In how we hold ourselves when something feels off.
In what we do when it would be easier to look away.
Most of us are guided by our values long before we can name them.
They sit quietly underneath the surface, shaping what feels right or off, what we reach for, what we defend, and what we let go of, even before we have language for it.
When my mum is asked to share a story from my childhood, she tells one from a trip to Hungary. I was playing with children who didn’t speak a word of English. Apparently, I tried: "Do you speak English?" They shook their heads. "Do you speak Swedish?" Nope. “Malay?”, still no. And then, we laughed, shrugged, and without words, we continued playing.
I’ve always loved that story, not because of what it says about me, but because it reminds me how natural our values can be when we stop trying to name or justify them. Long before we label them as things like empathy, connection, or belonging, they emerge instinctively in how we choose to engage with the world.
I don't think that living by values means we always get it right.
I think it means we listen for the rhythm underneath the noise, that deep inner pulse that reminds us who we are, even when things are uncertain.
And like any rhythm, we lose it sometimes.
We rush ahead, fall out of sync, and get swept by other people’s tempo.
Then something...a pause, a question, a conversation...calls us back.
Inner work isn’t about perfection.
It’s about returning.
Again and again, to what matters most to us.
The more I coach and lead, the more I see:
Our outer actions are only ever as steady as our inner rhythm.
When we move from that place, connected, grounded, human, people feel it.
And trust begins to grow.
So this week, I invite you to listen, and then move.
Choose one small action that lets one of your values be visible.
It doesn’t have to be big.
Sometimes the quietest gestures carry the loudest truth.
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