What does challenge mean as a core value?
Challenge as a core value means seeking out work and experiences that stretch you beyond what you know you can do, and finding energy in the difficulty itself.
Easy work bores you, and boredom feels worse than struggle. If challenge is a core value, you come alive when a task is just beyond what you know you can do: the marathon you’re not sure you’ll finish, the turnaround nobody else wanted, the language with an unfamiliar alphabet. The discomfort is part of the draw. You’re often the person who volunteers for the difficult client or asks for the project that’s already in trouble.
What does challenge look like in practice?
- You sign up for the harder route, the longer race or the advanced class.
- You ask for the project that’s already behind schedule.
- You set yourself extra rules to make a routine task more demanding.
- You lose interest in a hobby once it stops being hard.
- You go looking for the weak points in your own plans before anyone else can.
When is challenge overplayed?
The appetite for difficulty can make you invent it. You complicate simple things, take on too many hard projects at once, or quietly look down on people who prefer steady, manageable work. Teams can burn out following someone who always needs the next mountain. You may also walk away from things just as they become easy enough to enjoy. Healthy challenge is chosen deliberately and balanced with recovery. It can help to pick one area of life, maybe a hobby or your weekends, and let it be easy on purpose.
Often confused with
Challenge vs Growth
Growth is about becoming more over time. Challenge is about the stretch itself: you might take on something hard purely for the test it offers.
Challenge vs Adventure
Adventure is about the new and unknown. Challenge is about difficulty, so a familiar task made harder satisfies it just as well.
Challenge vs Winning
Winning is about beating others. Challenge is about testing yourself against something hard, and a narrow loss can satisfy it more than an easy win.
Questions to sit with
- Which challenge are you currently taking on because you want it, and which because you can’t resist a hard thing?
- What have you abandoned simply because it became easy?
- Who around you is paying for your appetite for difficulty?
More values in Growth
Becoming more than you were.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
Find your own
Is Challenge one of your core values?
Choose from 155 values, narrow them down to the few that matter most, and get a personal report to keep. Free, and it takes about 15 minutes.
Find your core values