Life can be draining and life can also be energizing.
Usually, when you experience a sense of energy and aliveness, your personal core values are in alignment with your current experience.
When you're feeling stifled or frustrated, it's life telling you that something is out of whack.
One of the best ways to live a life filled with lightness and peace is to ensure that you are aware of your personal core values and are living a life in harmony with those values.
What is Values Management? Values are either explicitly or implicitly the guideposts of our lives.
Freedom, excellence, community, achievement, education, gratitude are all commonly held values.
Values Management is creating your personal core values list, defining what each one mean to you, and then actively using them in your decision-making and prioritization of goals and tasks.
Values Exercise: A list of values are just words until you make them real with your own experience.
For example, freedom to one person may mean the feeling that they get when they are in nature and for someone else it may mean the ability to set their own schedule and priorities for the day.
Follow this exercise to uncover some of your core values: 1) Think about a time that you really felt a sense of aliveness and just thinking about it brings the memory rushing back.
It could be anything, a family vacation, a walk in the park, or dinner with your friend - anything.
The important thing is that the story is meaningful to you.
Spend a few minutes really bringing the memory to life.
2) Remember a time that you were at your wits' end.
Sometimes when we're really frustrated, it's actually a value getting stepped on.
Maybe you absolutely hate getting stuck in traffic and you feel yourself getting angry just thinking about it.
What value could be getting stepped on? Being on time, being productive or something else? Find the story that is most meaningful to you and take a look.
3) Tell your stories to a friend or journal it.
After you tell or write your stories, pull out the feelings from the details and facts.
4) Take a look at those feelings that brought you alive in your story.
Those words are some of your strongest values guideposts 5) Do exercise steps one and two multiple times until you have a robust list of values.
Go Deeper: 1) Look for common themes in your stories and values lists.
For example, did the value of autonomy come up multiple times? If so, it's clearly an important one for you to note.
2) As you consolidate and compare, pare your list down to approximately five core values.
It does not mean that other values are unimportant; it simply means that this is your unique core list.
3) Make the list even more personalized to you.
The goal of this step is to give each value a unique name the immediately brings it to life for you and sets it apart from anyone else's definition.
If freedom is a value that made it onto your final list, you truly know the feeling of the word best when it's associated with your story.
For example, if you're a swimmer and you associate freedom with that feeling you get in the pool when you have no worries or focus other than your next powerful stroke, you may want to rename your "freedom" value "swimming".
Put your final personal values list somewhere that you can find it and look at it and use it.
Your bulletin board, wallet, desk drawer, planner or Smartphone are all perfect places just as long as it's with you.
Look at it, refer to it and use this deeper knowledge of yourself to practice personal values management.
Usually, when you experience a sense of energy and aliveness, your personal core values are in alignment with your current experience.
When you're feeling stifled or frustrated, it's life telling you that something is out of whack.
One of the best ways to live a life filled with lightness and peace is to ensure that you are aware of your personal core values and are living a life in harmony with those values.
What is Values Management? Values are either explicitly or implicitly the guideposts of our lives.
Freedom, excellence, community, achievement, education, gratitude are all commonly held values.
Values Management is creating your personal core values list, defining what each one mean to you, and then actively using them in your decision-making and prioritization of goals and tasks.
Values Exercise: A list of values are just words until you make them real with your own experience.
For example, freedom to one person may mean the feeling that they get when they are in nature and for someone else it may mean the ability to set their own schedule and priorities for the day.
Follow this exercise to uncover some of your core values: 1) Think about a time that you really felt a sense of aliveness and just thinking about it brings the memory rushing back.
It could be anything, a family vacation, a walk in the park, or dinner with your friend - anything.
The important thing is that the story is meaningful to you.
Spend a few minutes really bringing the memory to life.
2) Remember a time that you were at your wits' end.
Sometimes when we're really frustrated, it's actually a value getting stepped on.
Maybe you absolutely hate getting stuck in traffic and you feel yourself getting angry just thinking about it.
What value could be getting stepped on? Being on time, being productive or something else? Find the story that is most meaningful to you and take a look.
3) Tell your stories to a friend or journal it.
After you tell or write your stories, pull out the feelings from the details and facts.
4) Take a look at those feelings that brought you alive in your story.
Those words are some of your strongest values guideposts 5) Do exercise steps one and two multiple times until you have a robust list of values.
Go Deeper: 1) Look for common themes in your stories and values lists.
For example, did the value of autonomy come up multiple times? If so, it's clearly an important one for you to note.
2) As you consolidate and compare, pare your list down to approximately five core values.
It does not mean that other values are unimportant; it simply means that this is your unique core list.
3) Make the list even more personalized to you.
The goal of this step is to give each value a unique name the immediately brings it to life for you and sets it apart from anyone else's definition.
If freedom is a value that made it onto your final list, you truly know the feeling of the word best when it's associated with your story.
For example, if you're a swimmer and you associate freedom with that feeling you get in the pool when you have no worries or focus other than your next powerful stroke, you may want to rename your "freedom" value "swimming".
Put your final personal values list somewhere that you can find it and look at it and use it.
Your bulletin board, wallet, desk drawer, planner or Smartphone are all perfect places just as long as it's with you.
Look at it, refer to it and use this deeper knowledge of yourself to practice personal values management.
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