Can your friends identify your values?
By making a list of those things in your life that you value the most and that are important to you, then you will better understand what makes you so unique and how to use those traits to your advantage.
The five-point checklist for defining your values
Here is a five-point check list that will help you get started.
1. Happiness. Make a list that identifies those times when you felt the most happy, upbeat, and positive (times when your self-esteem was super high). Were you alone or with someone when you felt this way? Do you remember what you were doing? Write it down. Can you think of one more experience that made you so happy?
2. Pride. Looking back at your career and your personal life, name those times when you felt truly proud of yourself or your accomplishments. Describe why you felt proud of yourself, and if that moment was also shared with other people.
3. Fulfillment. Do you believe that you have felt fulfilled throughout most of your life? Choose your personal life experiences or work experiences that made you feel totally fulfilled. Did you have a specific need or desire that was fulfilled through that event? What was it about feeling fulfilled that gave greater meaning to your life?
4. To help you figure out your top ten values, look at what you’ve written down for happiness, pride, and fulfillment. Which of those experiences created a memorable moment for you?
Listed below are some of the most common personal values that men and women have defined as being in their top 10 list.
Accountable, Accurate, Achievement, Adventurousness, Ambition, Assertive
Balance, Being the best, Belonging, Boldness
Calmness, Careful, Challenge, Cheerful, Clear-minded, Commitment, Community, Compassion, Competitive, Consistent, Contentment, Continuous Improvement, Contribution, Control, Cooperation, Correctness, Courtesy, Creativity, Curiosity
Decisiveness, Dependable, Determined, Devoutness, Diligence, Discipline, Discretion, Diversity
Economy, Effective, Efficiency, Elegance, Empathy, Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, Equality, Excellence, Excitement, Expertise, Exploration, Expressiveness
Fairness
Faith
Family-oriented
Fidelity
Fitness
Fluency
Focus
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Goodness
Grace
Growth
Happiness
Hard Work
Health
Helping Society
Holiness
Honesty
Honor
Humility
Independence
Ingenuity
Inner Harmony
Inquisitiveness
Insightfulness
Intelligence
Intellectual Status
Intuition
Irreverence
Joy
Justice
Leadership
Legacy
Love
Loyalty
Making a difference
Mastery
Merit
Obedience
Openness
Order
Originality
Patriotism
Perfection
Piety
Positivity
Practicality
Preparedness
Professionalism
Prudence
Quality-orientation
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Restraint
Results-oriented
Rigor
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
Thorough
Thoughtful
Timeliness
Tolerance
Traditional
Trustworthy
Truth-seeking
Understanding
Uniqueness
Unity
Usefulness
Vision
Vitality
5. In no particular order, write down on a sheet of paper the top 10 values that are most important to you. Now, look at the completed list and assign a rating to each one. In other words, what is the number one value in your life? What do you value as second? What value would you assign to position number three in your list?
It’s important to prioritize your values so you will mentally become more aware of what is important to you as a person; the outcome of this list will help define your vision for the future. Your values define who you are, and the more aware you are of what’s truly important to you, these top 10 values will help you make the best choices in every single situation and opportunity that comes your way.
