What Is the Security Value?
Security centers on the need for safety, stability, and continuity, personally and collectively. In the Schwartz value circle, Security sits within the Conservation domain, emphasizing preservation of the status quo, order, and social harmony. You’ll often meet this value during guided exercises like the PVQ (Portrait Values Questionnaire), Barrett Values Assessment, or a simple values card sort. Its impact isn’t subtle: nearly 70% of people worldwide rank Security among their top five values, making it a cornerstone of the human experience (Schwartz, 2012).
Core Motivations & Behavioral Signals
- Preference for predictable routines and environments
- Seeking clear boundaries and reliable rules
- Avoiding unnecessary risks or instability
- Trusting institutions and dedicating effort to maintaining social order
- Weighing decisions with caution, especially when others are affected
- Prioritizing the physical and emotional safety of loved ones
Beneath these patterns runs an evolutionary current: Security helps us minimize threat, support cohesion, and maximize survival odds. It’s a deeply social instinct, fostering group trust and emotional steadiness, especially in uncertain times. People high in Security orientation often report lower stress and greater well-being when their environments offer structure and reliability (Smith & Jackson, 2018).
Growth Strategies & Practical Applications
Daily Habits
- Anchor your days with morning or evening routines.
- Regularly check your financial health and set preventive health appointments.
- Create digital boundaries: limit media that triggers uncertainty, use notification curfews.
Alignment Checks
- Ask: “Is this choice creating lasting stability, or am I sidestepping meaningful growth?”
- Consider: “How could I strengthen my resilience without retreating into pure comfort?”
Support Systems
- Invest in relationships that value reliability and mutual support.
- Try habit-tracking apps that reinforce consistency.
- Build family or team “safety agreements” for shared boundaries and emergency plans.
Strengths & Pitfalls
Strengths
- Reliability: Those guided by Security are trusted anchors in teams and families (Gottman, 2015).
- Resilience: Consistent patterns help ward off burnout, buffering against emotional exhaustion (Lopez, 2021).
- Community Trust: Security upholds shared norms, supporting social cohesion.
- Preparedness: Often, these individuals have practical crisis plans others may lack.
- Patience: Cautious choices can temper impulsivity, promoting long-term success.
Common Pitfalls
- Rigid overemphasis can block necessary risk-taking and growth.
- Can conflict with values like Adventure or Autonomy, leading to internal or relational tension.
- Cultural bias toward order may exclude difference, causing rigidity or in-group preference.
Cross-Domain Parallels (“Integration Map”)
- Big Five: Security aligns with high Conscientiousness, orderly, reliable, and preference for structure.
- Enneagram: Mirrors Type Six (The Loyalist), drawn to safety and trustworthy alliances.
- CliftonStrengths: Parallels the Consistency theme, honoring fairness and stable processes.
- Mythic Archetypes: Embodied in The Guardian or the Zodiac’s Cancer, protectors of home and heart.
- Shadow Element: When gripped too tightly, Security morphs into anxious attachment to control, breeding resistance to needed change.
How Security Shapes Lifemap’s 12 Life Categories
Career: Tips for Finding Stability
Seek organizations or roles with transparent hierarchy and clear paths for growth.
Coaching prompt: Where do you find your deepest sense of job security?
Relationships: Building Trust
Foster loyalty through reliability and honest communication.
Coaching prompt: How do you demonstrate trustworthiness in your close connections?
Family: Routines & Rituals
Regular mealtimes or shared rituals reinforce the container of family safety.
Coaching prompt: What small routines help your family feel more grounded?
Emotional: Restoring Balance
Design fallback plans for stressful days, a shortlist of strategies to recalibrate.
Coaching prompt: What steadies you when emotional storms hit?
Spiritual: Cultivating Sanctuary
Seek reflective spaces (meditation, sacred spots) for inner peace.
Coaching prompt: How do you create a safe space to connect deeply with yourself?
Health & Fitness: Consistent Care
Prioritize preventative practices and gentle but regular movement.
Coaching prompt: How do your routines protect your long-term well-being?
Lifestyle: Designing Safety
Choose environments, home, neighborhood, that foster calm and predictability.
Coaching prompt: What makes your living space feel like a secure base?
Financial: Building a Safety Net
Establish ongoing monitoring and layers of “just in case” support.
Coaching prompt: Do your spending and saving habits reinforce your sense of security?
Community: Contributing to Stability
Take on roles in neighborhood watch or mutual aid networks.
Coaching prompt: How can you help create a secure foundation for your wider community?
Creativity: Harnessing Structure
Find inspiration in routine, structured brainstorming, scheduled creative windows.
Coaching prompt: How does routine help or hinder your creative energy?
Learning: Trusting the Proven
Opt for accredited courses and evidence-based resources.
Coaching prompt: Where do you seek reliable knowledge, and why?
Life Vision: Imagining a Secure Future
Picture a future rooted in calm and certainty, what does that look like?
Coaching prompt: What does “security” look and feel like in your ideal future?
The Lifemap Holistic Coaching Perspective
Clarifying Security as a value can provide a deep sense of grounding and focus, allowing you to weather change with grit and composure. Like any virtue, though, Security’s power comes when it’s balanced, not absolute. Lifemap’s holistic approach doesn’t isolate Security; it weaves it with personality flows like Enneagram, the Big Five, and signature Strengths, creating a more layered and self-aware life profile. Picture Security as a North Star on your hero’s journey map, illuminating safe passage, but in dialogue with other lights like growth, adventure, or compassion.
Conclusion & Coaching Call-to-Action
Research underscores that honoring Security, through routines, relationships, and practical foresight, predicts greater well-being and resilience (Brown & Lee, 2019). Yet your values, like you, are alive. They shift and evolve as your story unfolds. Ready to explore this further? Begin your 7-day Hero’s Journey with Lifemap and discover how Security, and its supporting cast of core values, can guide your next steps with intention.
Dranbleiben! Your journey awaits.
– Valentin
