John: This week, we’re gonna talk to you about values because it’s kind of a compass. I’m joined in the studio by Tracy Margieson and we’ve kind of made a pact to have an ongoing series of these hot tips that deal with the concept of wellbeing. So, Tracy, I’ll throw it over to you.

Tracy: Cool. So, hi everyone. I’m Tracy Margieson and I’m the Project Manager of the Arts Wellbeing Collective at Arts Centre Melbourne, and I’m very pleased to be here today to give you a hot tip about values. It does sound a bit Oprah Winfrey to say, “Live by your values,” but I’ve seen through the course of the Arts Wellbeing Collective pilot program that it’s one of the most important decisions that you can make, the decision to live in line with your values. Now every organization has values…everywhere you’ve worked, from cafes to theater, galleries to factories, whether they were on a poster in the green room or you just knew what the management valued. Every single organization has a set of values.

Our values at Arts Center Melbourne are leadership, community, care more, and creativity. And I really feel like these values empower me. If I’m not sure about a decision, I believe that if I make a call in line with our values, I’ll be backed, even if the decision is the wrong one. And that’s the real role of values. It’s only recently, though, that I’ve come to consider my own values, and I recommend you do the same. While it seems like a very personal thing to do, it’s something that’s really vital in the arts, as often our sense of identity, our self-worth, our esteem, and our confidence can be entirely tied up with the success of our creative output. Uncovering your personal values helps you to navigate based on what is intrinsically you, not what is your art.

So, what are values? My good friend and colleague Greta Bradman, who’s a clinical psychologist and performing artist stated it beautifully, and JP said this before as well. Your values are your compass. When you’re making a decision, no matter how big or small, a decision that’s made in line with your values will always feel the best. So how do you know what your values are? Good news. You can do a quiz. There’s a great website where you can complete a 15-minute self-assessment and it will give you what they refer to as your core characteristics. It’s an excellent tool and I found it to be spot-on.

My top value is creativity. And while this can include artistic achievement, it actually refers to a passion of thinking of novels ways to conceptualize and do things. This is entirely true for me. I always want to explore new and original ways to do things and to challenge how things are done. As a result, the sentence that really gets my back up is when someone says to me, “But this is how we’ve always done it.” It’s only recently that I connected that the reason that I get so upset by this is because it’s an assault on my values. It’s not just something that bugs me a little bit. I’m conscious now that that person might really value tradition or prudence and that they’re coming at a problem from a totally different value set to me. Being aware of this has really helped me to navigate difficult situations, and also helps me to know where to focus my energy. So here’s what I want you to do this week. Take the survey. The website is www.viacharacter.org…I’m gonna say that again…www.viacharacter.org, and uncover your core values. And then, consider one thing you could do differently to live more in line with those values. I hope you found this hot tip useful. If you’d like to read Arts Centre Melbourne’s values or find more about the Arts Wellbeing Collective, I encourage you to visit our website, which is www.artswellbeingcollective.com.au.

John: That is so awesome. It really works. If you’re in line there, everything becomes easier. So Tracy and I are going to have a bigger, more in-depth conversation about this topic of values and how it gets applied in the ASAP program. So if you’d like to really dig into this, have a look at the ASAP program and join up, and we’re gonna have a more in-depth conversation. But we’ll see you again with another hot tip on some other wellbeing thing a bit later. Thanks, Trace.