Now let’s expand on the initial list of Values you created in the last lesson. To give you some other ideas, here’s a list of common Values frequently listed by others:

Achievement, Adventure, Authenticity, Balance, Continuous Improvement, Courage, Creativity, Empathy, Excitement, Fairness, Fame, Family, Financial Success, Friendship, Fun, Generosity, Gratitude, Growth & Development, Happiness, Health, Helping Others, Honesty, Integrity, Joy, Kindness, Leadership, Learning, Love, Loyalty, Open-mindedness, Optimism, Passion, Persistence, Personal Development, Positivity, Relationships, Responsibility, Respect, Service, Teamwork

To help you come up with your Values, you can consider questions such as: 

  • What is most important to you in life?

  • What do you stand for?

  • What do you believe in?

  • What do you want to achieve or accomplish?

  • What motivates you?

  • What gives your life meaning?

  • What do you want for your legacy?

Another approach is to think about people you most admire and respect, whether they are people you know or they are historical characters. What Values do they embody that you aspire to?

Today’s Action:

Start by reviewing the Exercises you have completed earlier in this course, and jot down or highlight any Values you can identify based on your work on those Exercises.

Now do the same with the list and questions in this Lesson above. It is likely that you can easily identify some of your most important Values based on this work. 

Now it’s time to make a long list of all the Values you came up with that are important to you, without evaluating or filtering them. It doesn’t matter how long the list is, or the format, just keep writing words or phrases that you think represent important Values to you.

Next comes the hard part: Narrow down the list to your top five to ten Values. If you’re finding it tough to narrow down the list, you may want to first go through and rank them A, B, and C. The B’s and C’s may still be important, but not as important as the A’s, so the A’s are your Values. If there are still too many A’s, you can categorize them as 1, 2 and 3 based on their level of importance to you and then take the top 5 to 10 as your Values.

More Values Exercises:

  • Write Your Own Obituary: Assume you will live to 100 and can spend the rest of your life any way you want; you are able to do anything and achieve anything. Write your own obituary now, the way you would most want to be remembered. This should help you to uncover important Values and life goals.

  • Your Eulogy: Imagine you are at your own funeral. Who do you hope is there and what do you hope they say about you? Write down some ideas on who you would want there (this can be specific people or categories of people) and what you would want those people to say about you. Now, based on what you wrote, what specific actions can you take to make that more likely to happen? Is there anything you should change about your Values or Vision?

  • 6 Word Description: This is a shorter and easier version of the Eulogy. Write down the six words or phrases you would most want people to use to describe you at your funeral – or even when introducing you to someone next year. Those six words or phrases are likely to give you insight into your Values and the kind of person you most want to be. What changes should you make in your goals, plans, and daily activities to make this come true?

  • Submit them here.