Day 5: Introduction to Values

By writing your Vision of your ideal future life, you’ve now completed the first step in the Happiful program.

The next step in Happiful is to identify your Values.

Your Values are the things that really matter to you. These are things that should guide your behavior at all times. We all have Values, but most people have never taken the time to think about and define them. It’s a quick, fun and generally quite enlightening process to come up with your Values.

And it’s important – the combination of your Vision of your ideal future life and your personal Values should drive all of your decisions, priorities, and actions. As Craig Ballantyne puts it: “Your Values and Vision Drive Every Decision.”

As Darren Hardy says in his book ‘The Compound Effect’, “Your core values are your internal compass, your guiding beacon, your personal GPS. They act as the filter through which you run all of life’s demands, requests, and temptations, making sure they are leading you toward your intended destination. Getting your core values defined and properly calibrated is one of the most important steps in redirecting your life toward your grandest vision. If you haven’t already clearly defined your values, you may find yourself making choices that conflict with what you want.”

Determining and writing out your personal Values is therefore a critical exercise. But it doesn’t have to take long, and, like your Vision, you don’t have to get it “right” the first time. You are likely to make changes over time, so don’t put this off – just get started!

For most of us, the hardest part is limiting our Values to a manageable number, but don’t limit yourself at first. You’ll want to start with a long list and then narrow it down. For example, I started with over 25 Values I felt were important to me, but to keep me focused and to make it easy for me to remember, I reduced my Values to what I believe is truly most important to guide my life: Forward Progress in Fitness, Family, Friends, Fun, and Freedom of Time, Location, and Money.

Today’s Action:

Think about what really matters to you in your life and just start writing down a list of words or phrases. After completing some more Exercises, you’ll both add to this list and then pare it down later, so don’t worry about getting it right yet – just start writing down some ideas for the Values that matter to you.

Values Exercises:

• Unlimited Money: If you inherited $10 billion, what would you do with the money? What would you do with the rest of your life? Write down some ideas. This Exercise helps you to uncover your most important Values and what your ideal life would look like when you have no constraints. Do you need to update your Vision and Values to reflect this? Can you make changes in your life to move closer to what you came up with even though you don’t have unlimited money?

• One Year To Live: If you went to the doctor next week and he told you that you were dying and had one year to live, what would you do for the next year? What does that tell you about what is most important to you? Should your Values reflect this? Should your Vision reflect this? What changes can you make to your life to get closer to what you came up with? What’s the #1 change you could start right now?