What is your purpose in life? What is your life all about? Now if in response to these questions, you start listing goals or milestones, you may be missing

out on something big.

Hello and welcome back to savvy psychologist.

I'm Dr. Jade Wu, and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with

evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Today on the show

we talk about values, what they are and how to use them in four steps to begin

living a meaningful life.

So I recently heard from Amy, a former client of mine, checking in just to let me know that she's doing great.

I remember Amy well.

She's an intelligent, hardworking, social, all around go-getter. When she came to therapy, actually her

life looked pretty perfect on paper. But she always felt dissatisfied, like the pieces of her life just didn't quite add up to a whole that made her happy.

She felt restless at her high paying job, she couldn't stay in love with her serially monogamous partners, and she felt disconnected from her family, even though she was frequently in touch with them.

I remember asking Amy, what are your values? What is your life all about?

She started listing goals.

She wanted a master's degree.

She wanted to move her career into sustainable technology. She

wanted to be married within a couple of years. She planned to have two kids. She

wanted to lose five more pounds. At some point I had to gently interrupt her. Amy, these are

goals, items on a checklist. My question was about your overarching values, your life's meaning.

She was baffled.

What's the difference?

So amongst my clients, whether they came to me for help with managing anxiety, for healing after loss, or even just sleeping better,

...