★Discover Your Core Values

Below the dotted line is the original post that started this thread. I’ve done some work and wanted to share my progress, but didn’t want to delete the original post. There is still a lot of good useful info in the thread. Click here: to skip down to see how I finally figured some stuff out.

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I feel a little proud of myself right now ‘cause I think I’ve finally figured out a way to really get down to my core values. I’m also want to toot my own horn a little because I came up with this exercise all by myself – at least I haven’t found an exercise like this and I’ve read a lot of articles about values over the last few days. Now, having said all that, I haven’t actually DONE this yet, I was just so excited by the idea I wanted to share it with you guys immediately. I am going to start working on this today and it might take me a few days, but after I’m done I hope to be able to report to you guys that it worked. Also, if any of you want to try it with me I’d love to know if it does you any good.

Knowing your values is important. I know you know this, but just in case you’re new here I’m gonna’ come back and add some links to stuff explaining WHY this is so important. Trust me, it is important stuff.

Step One
Okay, so here’s my idea. Go online somewhere and download some lists of human values. (I’ll add some links later, I’m just trying to get this out of my brain and onto paper (or computer screen) right now.

Step Two
Go through the list and circle every value on it that resonates with you even a little bit.

Step Three
After each value that you circled, write out what that value means to you personally. This will be some high-value 80/20 type personal time to invest in yourself.

EXAMPLE:
Let’s say on your list you circled “Beauty” as something you value. One person might consider “beauty” to be appreciating nature, whereas another person might consider “beauty” to be a work of art, or a finely crafted Swiss watch. By writing out what “beauty” means to you, you will be writing your values in your description. By doing this for all of the values you circled in the list, your core values will begin to come to the surface. Patterns and re-occurring words will start showing up over and over. SO, all of the vagueness begins falling away. Remember, this exercise is for YOU so that YOU understand your core values. It’s not about getting a universal, one size fits all definition of what the word “beauty” means to everyone. It’s about what the word “beauty” means to YOU. AND if you ever want to explain your values to another person – husband, boss, employee – you will be able to CLEARLY express your values. How better to improve communication skills than THAT!

Am I over explaining? I do that sometimes.

Anyway, once you have done this for all of the words you circled you should have a very good handle on your personal values and be able to whittle it down to just a handful of KEY Personal values – words that resonate with meaning for you on a very deep level. Core value words that “contain” the meaning of the other words that matter to you. See what I mean?

Is all of this already obvious to everyone? I hope I don’t sound too silly here, but I have really struggled with this for a long time and thought this post might help some of you guys.

The Power of Personal Values is a wonderful article.

What a great idea! Thanks MCM!

I swear, this forum is just so right on for me sometimes. I’ll be thinking about how to get onto a better path to something, and then I come in here, and see a thread that fits the bill :)

Here are some articles and lists I found.

“Four Steps to Identifying and Implementing Your Core Values
By Victoria Munro”:http://www.make-it-fly.com/ar-0601.htm

Career Change Assessment

FINDING OUT WHO YOU REALLY ARE

Below is a bit from one of the above links. I copied and pasted it here, but the spacing is kind of messed up. You’ll be able to decypher it, but you can just go to the links above and print out the lists.

Personal Core Values Checklist
Remember that no list can ever be complete. There may be some additional personal values that are unique to you, so don’t be limited by the list. Just add anything else that just feels right.

Acceptance Fast pace Power
Achievement Financial rewards Privacy
Adventure Focus Productivity
Altruism Freedom Promotion prospects
Ambition Friendship Reaching potential
Appreciation Fun Recognition
Authenticity Happiness Respect
Authority Harmony Responsibility
Autonomy Health Results
Balance Helping others Risk taking
Beauty Honesty Romance
Belonging Humour Routine
Challenge Imagination Security
Choice Independence Self expression
Collaboration Influence Service
Commitment Intellect Sharing
Community Intuition Solitude
Compassion Justice Spirituality
Competition Kindness Status
Connection Leadership Success
Contribution Learning Teaching
Creativity Love Team work
Equality Loyalty Tolerance
Excellence Making a difference Tradition
Excitement Nature Travel
Expertise Nurturing Trust
Fairness Order Variety
Faith Passion Winning
Fame Peace Wisdom
Family Personal growth Zest for life

thank you mcm for posting just what i need ,will have a go at this this afternoon ,love flowergirl

I have figured out something else that is helping me; I’ll try to describe how I’m using mind mapping to help with describing what each value means to me.

A list of values
A good list in pdf format

Let’s say “accountability” is a value for you, not necessarily a core value, but a value you hold. Make a mini-mind-map of accountability. Some of the other values you hold will relate to accountability. For example a mini-mind-map for accountability might have words/ideas/values like “responsibility”, “duty”, “commitment” and a host of other words. This will help you define what accountability means to you.

Thanks MCM. I likey and intend to put it in my treasure chest to use as I am in a rebuilding stage now. I agree with “the others” this is a great and timely gift. Warms me to the core;) Jan

I’m pleased with how well the mind map thing worked. I found that by working through the list that way, my core values really began jumping out at me. Also, asking myself who I admire – famous literature characters, famous people or just regular folks helped. Asking that question brought up answers, ‘cause what you admire in folks gives you an idea of what you value.

Here’s a little graphic to show how you could use a mindmap to help you get a handle on your values. Notice how they are interconnected and support each other. This is just an example of something I did that helped me. This could also be helpful in identifying conflicts. For example: do you value your health, but find exercise boring? Do you want to make lots of money but think of wealthy people as greedy or selfish?

A good short article
Another one
Here is something I really liked from from an article entitled Discover Your Passion
To ignite passion, one has to bring their core values and life purpose together. Write down all your important core values as well as all aspects of your current purpose onto one sheet of paper. Notice how they fit together and explore new ways to combine them. For example, if expression and creativity were two main values, and inspiring others was an important purpose, writing a book might be a way to ignite your passion.
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That’s what I call Leverage. It’s about getting clear and putting your talents and values to work FOR you! It’s about 80/20, Baby!

I found a site with lots of interesting articles. I’ve only glanced at a few of them, but looks like some good reading.
The Morris Institute

In response to themadcookieman’s post:
Magnificent MCM!

• • ~
    saving this spot to add affirmations(:
    
    

 

All areas of my life are in balance with my core values.

Thanks, Laurie. I made the pic with a program called Edraw. I found it on line. Free 30 day trial. You could make one of your own. I just did that ‘cause I thought a visual might help people.

This article is absolutely fantastic. Please read it. I like it so much I’m gonna post it here and go back and edit it into my first post on this thread too so no one will accidentally pass over it.
The Power of Personal Values

First I want to include this link again because I found it inspiring.
The Power of Personal Values

I’ve been dancing around values for quite a while now. After lots of failed attempts at uncovering my core values I’ve finally found a way that I think will work for most people. It has sure helped me.

I got several lists of values from the internet and printed them out. You can find some lists to print out just by googling stuff like “Core Human Values”, and “List of Human Values”, and “How To Discover Your Values”. There are already some links in the previous posts in this thread if you want to use them. Here is a list from Steve Pavlina’s site.

I finally made myself sit down in a quiet workspace with my lists and a notepad. Before, I just kept hem-hawing around, reading articles, looking for short cuts and other things to distract me from doing the work. I did learn a lot of things that helped me, like mind maps and lots of useful articles and exercises, but NOTHING is going to replace doing the work. There are no short cuts.

I went through the lists and began to circle the values that really resonated with me. I circled many words, more than what wound up being my true core values, but by circling lots of words that resonated with me on some level I got a narrowed down list that was easier to work with. You will encounter similar thoughts as you go through the values lists. Thoughts like, “ “Well…“Justice” is something I value, but it’s not screaming out to me “CORE VALUE”, but it is still a value I consider to be very important” “. When I came to those words I went ahead and circled them.

I made a new list of just the words I had circled from the other lists. This was a much shorter list from which I could make real progress without all of the other values on the other lists distracting me from my goal – getting to my true core values.

I took that condensed list and using the concept of mind mapping I created “related values groups”. For example: I knew that “learning” was probably going to wind up being one of my core values – the word really, really resonated with me. I went through the list and created a mini-list of ideas like: Learning, Wisdom, Knowledge, Power, Truth, Meaning, Discovery and so on. These ideas (and more as well) are all related in my mind for one reason or another. I went through the list again and made another mini-list of related ideas. This time I started with another of the words that really resonated strongly with me – Genuineness. I had a strong feeling that “Genuineness” was going to be one of my core values so that was a good place to begin making my new “related values group”. I came up with stuff like: Genuineness, Authenticity, Truth, Communication, Cooperation, Honesty and so on. Notice how the value of “truth” came up in both value groups. For me “truth” is closely related to both idea groups – Learning and Genuineness. You are going to find lots of similar connecting ideas.

I then looked at an idea group and started asking questions about it. “Why is learning important to me?” “If I examine my life can I see a pattern of me using and relating to this value a lot?” “How do I define learning”?

I began to write our my answers to the questions and discovered.“Learning is important to me because is increases my knowledge.” “Learning helps me by giving me more tools to relate to people”. “Learning helps me to find the truth”. “Why is knowledge important to me?” “Knowledge helps me find wisdom.” “Why is wisdom important to me?” “Wisdom helps me make good decisions”. All of these related ideas are important to me; but for me “Learning” seemed to be the best “core value” to represent these ideas. “Learning” seemed to be the “best” handle I could put on these related-interacting values.

Thoughts: This is going to take some time. You are going to come up with several core values – probably five or six primary ones and maybe five or ten secondary ones. While you are going through this process you are going to figure our that there are some values that aren’t core values for you, but they “ought” to be. (I want to point out that the world has lots of things it’s telling you that you “ought” to value. That is not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is a REAL “ought to have” value.) For me “health” and “hard work” aren’t primary core values, but I know that they are very important for lots and lots and lots of reasons. These are values that I want to adopt. I may come back later and write some on adopting values, but I still have stuff to learn about that topic before I can speak knowledgeably about it. I believe knowing our core values gives a strong foundation from which to act. I believe our values can change over time, but for the most part they pretty constant. There may be events which can make a sudden change in values. We should review our values from time to time. Our values can work together, but sometimes they can be conflicting. I can’t explain it well right now because I’m still learning, but I believe we can resolve some conflicts in our values by changing our paradigms.

thanks for this mcm i did a list of 30 which seemed too long and reading through it i can see some words point to the same value ,:calm,inner peace,tranquility,quietude,so if i focus on each one seperatly then collectivly i should come up with a core value ,have i got that muddled or does it make sense.

I have to be honest and say I did not know there was a forum at bmindful lol. I’m glad they sent the warning about inactive accounts because I’d have never know about this.
I love the list that helps you figure out your core values. I had just the other day looked for lists of values, attitudes, character traits etc., so I could make up the right affirmations for me. It took quite awhile to find what I was looking for, but I finally found them.
When I can get to a printer I’ll need to print things up so I can sit down and get into it. But I am very thankful to find out about these forums and get involved with others who think similar to the way I do and seek to improve themselves. I’ll be back often.

Sheri

In response to Musicmaker1969’s post: I’m so glad you found the forums musicmaker!!!
In response to flowergirl’s post:
You are on the right track flowergirl!!!

Just something that crossed my mind.

Freedom and Hard Work could be viewed as conflicting, but are they really? Don’t they support one another?

I was just thinking about paradigms. One guy might say “I hate hard work! I wanna’ be free!” and another guy might say “I wanna’ work hard so I can be free.”

Some conflicts may be complicated. What crosses my mind is in the areas of a persons world view with regard to individualism and collectivism. I spend far too much time watching the news, but I can see world views playing out on television right now – particularly with regard to the role of government. I’m a big “Constitutional”, “Founding Fathers” kind of person, but there are a lot of people with strong “Socialist” views.

I keep thinking of stuff I wanna say!

Doing this work will help you see things that will help you get your life more in balance. It will help you find areas you want to work on. If our foundation is more balanced we have more power to reach our goals. You know what I mean.

Here is an absolutely fantabulous article from Zen Habits. The One Tool You Need To Lead A Balanced Life

By the by, Zen Habits is a great site for good reading material.

Here’s a pic I made for my vision board. I also made one for my Personal Growth Binder. It’s the cover. If I had a color printer I’d make it really cool.

Serif Draw Plus is the FREE and SIMPLE program I used to create it. There are a lot of programs out there that are more power for drawing, but they are also more complicated to learn. I wanted something simple so I downloaded several free ones and checked them out. I liked this one best for this kinda stuff. Did I mention that it was free?

You know what would be cool? To print something like this out that’s small enough to fit in your wallet and then laminate it. You could make one for your dashboard, and one for your office and wherever. How about make bookmarks with “values” cards?

Here is an old thread I thought some of you might get something out of. I’m also posting something from an old article I saved. I don’t even know where I got this, but I sometimes print out articles and save them – this is from one of those.

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Values as the Highest Psychological Form for Accomplishment

We can see a continuum of psychological forms from data to values.

- Data are mental facts derived from sense observation.

- Information is data organized by the physical mind into meaningful relationships.

- Thoughts are specific conclusions or observations drawn from the information.

- Ideas are generalized conceptions derived from specific thoughts.

- Opinions are thoughts which the mind endorses and the ego identifies as its own.

- Beliefs are ideas which the mind endorses and the mental ego identified with as true for its life.

- Attitudes are opinions endorsed and energized by the vital ego.

- Values are idealized conceptions that are endorsed by the personality.

In terms of accomplishment, thoughts are mental forms of energy which do not necessarily lead to action. Ideas carry the energy of mental understanding. Opinions carry the force of mental conviction. Attitudes carry the vital force of our emotional endorsement. Values carry the power of psychological commitment and determination. Values issue from a deeper or higher center of motivation in our personalities and therefore carry far greater power than our opinions and attitudes.

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The above brought to mind this quote –

Be careful what you think… Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your character Your character is everything Be careful what you think, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful what you say, for your words become your actions. Be careful what you do, for your actions become your habits. Be careful what becomes habitual, for your habits become your destiny. Be careful what you think, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful what you say, for your words become your actions. Be careful what you do, for your actions become your character. And character is everything.

wonderful thread!
hope to see others add here…

this is a great topic!

SOME LINKS & PICS MISSING-THOUGH STILL SO MUCH GOOD STUFF HERE!!!

THANKS JEFF!!!