Uncover your personal values in less than 30 minutes and witness your life transform!
There are many shifts you can make that will change your life, from practicing gratitude, to journaling, to meditating and yoga, but if I had to choose one, just one to teach and preach, it would be personal values. If you’re craving change, feeling stuck or lost, my biggest piece of advice would be to identify your values and then design your life around them. You can do this exercise today, right now, in less than 30 minutes, and it will forever change the way you live your life. Knowing my values changed my life and I’ve seen it change my clients lives too. What are personal values?
Values are we who are.
Not who we want to be, or who we think we should be, but who we are.
They are the foundation for creating our most fulfilling, happiest, best life.
When we live life aligned with our values, life is good & fulfilling. When we don’t, life feels blah, filled with discontentment, unhappiness and unfulfillment. As we start to be influenced by others (parents, peers, society) it’s common to lose touch with our values and begin living other people's values instead of our own. Examples of a few personal values are: Adventure, Authenticity, Beauty, Connection, Creativity, Ease, Family, Free Spirit, Friends, Hard Work, Harmony, Health, Honesty, Family, Freedom, Free Spirit, Independence, Integrity, Inspiration, Joy, Love, Making A Difference, Nurturing, Peace, Security, Self-Care, Self-Love, Simplicity, Spirituality, Travel, Trust, Variety, Vitality.By identifying your values, you'll find clarity and create a solid foundation for your happiest, biggest, most fulfilling life.And as Roy E. Disney is known to have said,“ It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
Ready to change your life? Let's uncover your values:
Step #1:
Take a stroll down memory lane and think of times in your life when you felt the happiest, most alive and fulfilled. These are called peak experiences. They can be times of feeling deep peace, pride, or contentment. They can be from any time period in your life, as long as you felt at your absolute best. Don’t spend too much time thinking of the perfect moment, just go with the first few (at least 3) that come to mind.Take some time and write about these times in as much detail as possible.Here are some questions to guide you when writing about your peak experiences:What makes this moment special?Where were you?What were doing?Who were you with?Who were you being?Tap into your senses. What do remember seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and touching?
Step #2:
Your peak experience are some of your happiest memories because you were living aligned your values. Look back through your peak experiences & the questions, and circle/highlight any themes that came up more than once, or anything that you think may be one of your values.
Step #3:
Make a list of all the words you circled/highlighted.This list is the rough draft of your values. It may take sometime to hone in on the right words and to identify all your values, but this is a great start!
Next steps:
Now that you have a rough draft of your values, begin aligning your life with them. You can do this by looking inward and taking inventory. In what ways is your life aligned with your values? In what ways is it not?What action steps can you take to begin living a life aligned with your values?Also, when you make decisions, ask yourself, “is this aligned with my personal values.” If the answer is no, let it go.
Something to note...
When you discover your values you’ll realize what’s truly important to you and this can be a blessing and a curse. You may realize there are some BIG changes you need to make. Becoming aware is the first step. Be gentle with yourself. Living your best life is a journey, it takes time, and today you took a huge leap forward. Yay YOU!!!
XO, Em
P.S. Last, but not least, share your values in the comments below.