They are the “why” of your actions. Orienting around your values doesn’t require a great deal of effort, or even setting goals (though you’ll find when you set your goals in alignment with your values, that you’ll achieve them easier and faster, which is a much higher experience of fulfillment).
Think of values as how you live, when you are really living as you. For example, some people are natural explorers. They were at age 6, and at age 40 they are taking adventure trips. The person with the value of exploring doesn’t have to make themselves go explore – they just do it or more likely seek out opportunities for exploration. Values may be culturally-based or genetically-based, or a combination. The purpose of my comments today is not to explain where values come from, rather to discuss how to orient around them so that you experience greater Personal Freedom.