Core value · Health family
Movement
An active, physical life
Also covers Physical expression
What does movement mean as a core value?
Movement as a core value means living an active, physical life and enjoying being in your body, moving every day for the pleasure of it as much as for fitness.
A day spent entirely in a chair leaves you restless and a little flat. Movement as a core value is about living in your body: running, dancing, climbing, gardening, walking the long way round. Fitness targets are a side effect. Moving is how you think, unwind and express yourself, and it can be the most honest part of your day. When injury, work or circumstance stops you moving, you feel it in your mood as much as your muscles.
What does movement look like in practice?
- You take phone calls on foot whenever you can.
- You choose holidays around walking, cycling, swimming or skiing.
- You dance in the kitchen, whoever happens to be watching.
- You suggest a walking meeting when a conversation needs fresh thinking.
- You feel the difference in your temper on days you haven’t moved, and so do the people around you.
When is movement overplayed?
Taken to extremes, movement becomes compulsion. Missing a session feels like a crisis, injuries get ignored, and training plans take priority over family events or the rest your body badly needs. It can also become the only way you know to handle stress, which leaves you exposed when you can’t move. The steadier form listens to the body as well as using it. Building one rest day a week into the plan, and respecting it like a long run, is a good place to start.
Often confused with
Movement vs Health
Health values exercise as a way to protect body and mind. Movement values being physical for its own sake, even when it isn’t the most sensible choice.
Movement vs Energy
Energy is having the fuel for what matters. Movement is one of the ways you use and create it, and it matters to you even on days you’re tired.
Movement vs Self-expression
Self-expression is showing who you are, in any medium. Movement can be one of those, but it’s as much about how you feel in your body as what you show.
Questions to sit with
- When did you last move purely for the pleasure of it, with no goal attached?
- What happens to your mood, and your relationships, after a week without moving?
- If you couldn’t move the way you do now, what would you need to find instead?
More values in Health
Looking after your body, mind and energy.
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.
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