Clues to Your Values
When you define your core values, you discover what’s truly important to you.
A fun and effective way to identify your values is to look back on your life and write down the significant moments, choices and turning points you’ve experienced. You know it was a significant moment if it can be clearly remembered.
Your list of moments may include:
- Big decisions you had to make.
- Traumatic experiences in your life and your response to them.
- Any time when you had to make a choice that really mattered.
- Times when you felt really confident that you were making good choices.
- Moments in your life where you felt happiest – euphoric.
Don’t worry too much about the details of each moment; just write down a sentence or two about each. When finished, look through the list and think about why each of these moments mattered so much.
- What were you doing?
- Were you with other people? Who?
- What other factors contributed to this moment?
- Were you proud in the moment?
- Did other people share your pride? Who?
- What other factors contributed to your feelings of pride?
- What need or desire did the moment fulfill?
- How and why did the moment give your life meaning?
- What other factors contributed to your feelings of fulfillment?
- What internal situation were you trying to handle?
- What were you trying to avoid?
- What were you trying to accomplish?
- What made you make this choice and not another?
- What was the emotional payoff surrounding the choice you made?
Next, determine the values at play with each important moment you listed. Use the following list of values with which to tag each memorable moment.
List of Values
| Accountability
Accuracy Achievement Adventurousness Altruism Ambition Assertiveness Balance Being the best Belonging Boldness Calmness Carefulness Challenge Cheerfulness Clear-mindedness Commitment Community Compassion Competitiveness Consistency Contentment Continuous Improvement Contribution Control Cooperation Correctness Courtesy Creativity Curiosity Decisiveness Democracy Dependability Determination Devoutness
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Diligence
Discipline Discretion Diversity Dynamism Economy Efficiency Elegance Empathy Effectiveness Enjoyment Enthusiasm Equality Excellence Excitement Expertise Exploration Expressiveness Fairness Faith Family Fidelity Fitness Fluency Focus Freedom Fun Generosity Goodness Grace Growth Happiness Hard Work Health Helping Society Holiness
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Honesty
Honor Humility Independence Ingenuity Inner Harmony Inquisitiveness Insightfulness Intelligence Intellectual Status Intuition Joy Justice Leadership Legacy Love Loyalty Making a difference Mastery Merit Obedience Openness Order Originality Patriotism Perfection Piety Positivity Practicality Preparedness Quality-orientation Reliability Resourcefulness Restraint Results-oriented Rigor |
Professionalism
Prudence Security Self-actualization Self-control Selflessness Self-reliance Sensitivity Serenity Service Shrewdness Simplicity Soundness Speed Spontaneity Stability Strategic Strength Structure Success Support Teamwork Temperance Thankfulness Thoroughness Thoughtfulness Timeliness Tolerance Traditionalism Trustworthiness Understanding Uniqueness Unity Usefulness Vision Vitality
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Based on the significant moments experienced in my life, some of my values may be:
