Friday, June 22, 2012

Exercise: Discovering Your Core Values


1. Setting

Before you start this exercise, go to a nice, quiet room free of clutter (mostly). Preferably a place where you feel secure and have privacy. Light some candles or incense, open the window, or nothing at all – whatever makes you the most comfortable.

2. Have Your Tools at the Ready

Keep a piece of paper and a writing utensil nearby so you can jot down your values as they come to you. It is not recommended to use a computer, as you really shouldn't give yourself the opportunity to get distracted. This is your life-work, after all. Make sure you write on something you won't throw away. This list will prove to be a guiding light in moments of darkness.

3. Ask Yourself the Big Question

“What is truly important to me?” Think about what traits and values are most important to you. You could come up with anything from freedom or security, honesty, integrity – there is no wrong answer. Don't be discouraged if nothing comes immediately. You may not have ever asked yourself this question, or not given it much thought. Just keep thinking about it.

4. Write Down What Comes to Mind

Write down everything that comes to mind. Don't analyze, don't self-censor. Be completely honest with yourself. This list is just for you, so write down the words that most appeal to you, and don't concern yourself with what you think “should” be on the list. Don't worry about the order either – just try to get all the words that come to mind out of your head and onto the paper.

5. Widdle Down the List

Go through your list and rate the values based on the 1 to 10 system, 10 being the highest. This will determine the ones you feel the strongest about. Try to get the list down to five, but it's okay if you have more. There are no rules saying you can only have five values.

6. Prioritize

Prioritize your list in order from most important to least important. Mostly, your core values will compliment each other, but there may be times when they conflict. Just look at the conflicting values and determine which one is more important to you.


If you’re having trouble getting started, consult the list below to get some ideas. This list contains only a marginal amount of the hundreds of possible values out there. Good luck!


Accomplishment
Accountability
Accuracy
Adventure
Appreciation
Balance
Beauty
Calmness
Challenge
Change
Charity
Clarity
Cleanliness
Collaboration
Commitment
Communication
Community
Competence
Competition
Connection
Cooperation
Creativity
Decisiveness
Determination
Discipline
Discovery
Diversity
Dynamism
Efficiency
Enjoyment
Equality
Excellence
Fairness
Faith
Faithfulness
Family
Freedom
Friendship
Fun
Generosity
Gentleness
Goodwill
Goodness
Gratitude
Hard work
Happiness
Harmony
Health
Honor
Improvement
Independence
Individuality
Inner peace
Innovation
Integrity
Intelligence
Intensity
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Love
Loyalty
Peacefulness
Privacy
Progress
Prosperity
Punctuality
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Respect for others
Responsibility
Safety
Security
Self-actualization
Self-reliance
Self-thinking
Sensitivity
Service
Simplicity

Skill
Solving Problems
Spirit
Spirituality
Stability
Status
Strength
Success

Teamwork
Tolerance
Tradition
Tranquility
Trust
Truth
Unity
Variety
Well-being
Wisdom

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