Have You Defined Your Values Lately?

When you define your values, it is easier to understand yourself, your unique talents, and how to prioritize your time. With focus, you can take steps to understand your values on your own. But, if you would like to talk over your experiences and learn about additional tools to improve your life, connect with a personal support coach.

Making a Checklist to Define Your Values

Making a list can help when you want to define your values. Below are a few ways to get started.

• Happiness. Write down times when you remember feeling 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?
• 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. Was that moment shared with other people?
• Fulfillment. Do you believe that you have felt fulfilled throughout most of your life? For instance, do you choose life experiences or work experiences that lead to feelings of fulfillment? What was it about feeling fulfilled that gave greater meaning to your life?

Qualities to Include On Your Value List

Then, to 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? Do any personal values from the list below keep surfacing?

• Accountable, Accurate, Achievement, Adventurousness, Ambition
• Balance, Belonging, Boldness
• Careful, Cheerful, Community, Compassion, Competitive, Creativity, Curiosity
• Decisiveness, Dependable, Determined, Devout, Diligence, Discretion, Diversity
• Elegance, Empathy, Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, Equality, Excellence, Excitement, Expertise
• Fairness, Faith, Family, Fidelity, Fitness, Fluency, Focus, Freedom, Fun
• Generosity, Goodness, Grace, Growth
• Happiness, Health, , Holiness, Honesty, Honor, Humility
• Independence, Inquisitiveness, Intelligence
• Joy, Justice
• Leadership, Legacy, Love, Loyalty
• Making a difference, Mastery, Merit
• Obedience, Openness, Order, Originality
• Patriotism, Perfection, Piety, Positivity, Practicality, Preparedness, Professionalism
• Reliability, Resourcefulness, Restraint, Results-oriented, Rigor
• Self-control, Sensitivity, Service, Spontaneity, Stability, Strength, Success, Support
• Teamwork, Thoughtful, Timeliness, Tolerance, Traditional, Trustworthy, Truth-seeking
• Understanding, Uniqueness, Unity, Usefulness
• Vision

Prioritizing Values Illustrates Importance

Now, look at the completed list of values 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?

After all, 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.

Kendall Van Blarcom is a senior helping seniors. Contact Van Blarcom Consulting today for help with your personal problems. Or, reach out to provide support for an older adult in your life.