Your values: getting to the center of what drives you, makes you tick. Big picture stuff. Values are literally those things you most value. The quick instructions on how to do this are to just sit down and determine those few things (usually ten or less)--Courage, Love, God, Health, whatever--that are most important to you. If you spend adequate time thinking about it and being honest with yourself, you should gain more insight about your purpose and how your priorities and goals should all line up.
I sat down and worked through my values again recently the hard way: pencil, paper, and several days of note scribbling. I also went back and reviewed the values I had listed a few years ago and was happy to see that I had grown a bit since then. That's another great thing about reassessing yourself every few years: I realized my growth had been predominantly in thinking more positively and in bigger picture terms, not taking things too seriously, and learning to enjoy life more.
I've nine values which may be too many (who's to say?), so next year or whenever I sit down to do this again, I may distill them down a bit further. The list definitely doesn't have to be perfect. The point is to just do the exercise, think about it, and apply any insights you have to your life.
A quicker way to determine your values is to try the Values Game. It's online and only takes a couple of minutes. It's also good for getting an idea of values you may not have considered (there's a list of over 30 there). If someone has a better link than this one, please send it to me.
Another helpful resource is a blog called Zen Habits. It contains all sorts of information on how to make life improvements in very practical and down-to-earth ways.
0 comments:
Post a Comment