Do you believe it’s November already? In just a few short weeks, Thanksgiving will be here and the holidays will be upon us once again. What will you give thanks for on this Thanksgiving Day? Those first few things that come to your mind without a second thought say a lot about what you value most in life. And what you value most says a lot about who you are. Our personal values not only reflect our unique identity, but should also shape how we live and what we do with the time we have on this earth. But do they? Do we even know what we value most in life?
When asked, it’s easy to recite a few noble ideas off the top of our heads, like “family”, “friends”, or “giving”. But what do you really value? Have you ever taken time to figure that out? Have you ever thought about how your life would be different if you actually made your life choices, even daily ones like how you spend your time and money, based on the things you value most?
I still remember the words of one of my pastors who, over 20 years ago, said “You can tell who your ‘god’ is (what you value most) by looking at your check book and your calendar.” Where we spend our time and money speaks volumes about what is really important to us. That’s not just a modern-day principle. Over 2000 years ago Jesus told his followers, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) What do you treasure? What do you value? Does the way you spend your time and money point to your true values? Are they God’s values? Or are you following what others ~ the media, advertisers, friends, family ~ tell you should be important, and perhaps burying your own unique values?
Today, make time to discover what truly matters to you. The Values Brain-Dump below will help you think about what you value most. As you go through the exercise and narrow down your ideas to four or five core values, perhaps you’ll see a pattern. Maybe you’ll discover that you are in fact spending your time, money, and talent on the things that really matter to you. Or, like so many of us, perhaps you’ll learn that what matters most in your life is getting a bit short-changed. If that’s the case, then it’s time to make a change. It’s time to start intentionally living your values. It’s time to make sure that your heart and life truly do follow your ‘treasure’ ~ the things that are really important to you!
Life Values Brain-Dump
(This exercise was adapted from Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills, by Tony Stoltzfus, 56)
Below is a list of eight life categories that make up a good portion of most of our lives.
Life Categories:
Work ~ your career or job
Money ~ income, investments, retirement
Living Environment ~ your life setting: home/apartment, office, car, etc.
Personal Growth ~ what you do to learn or improve yourself
Health and Recreation ~ everything you do to take care of yourself
Community ~ friends, community involvement, social life
Family ~ married/single life, children, and extended family
God ~ your spiritual life
Create your Brain-Dump list:
- Start by making a list of all of the things you care about most in each of the eight life categories. Don’t worry about organizing, prioritizing or evaluating right now ~ just brainstorm.
- Take five to ten minutes for each category and write everything that is important to you in that area of life. Remember, you’re creating a list of what you care about most, so if you have to think too long and hard it may not really be very important to you!
- If you have friends or family members who are interested in discovering their core life values, this is a great exercise to do with a small group of people.
Find your core values:
- Once you’ve completed your brain-dump list, it’s time to narrow things down a bit. Your goal will be to end up with the four or five key core values of your life.
- Look for values or ideas that may have appeared in more than one life category. Do you see a “theme” emerging?
- Next, choose the one or two values that are most important to you in each life category. Which ones would you say you’re most passionate about?
- And finally, ask yourself if any of the life categories themselves are more or less important to you?
- By narrowing the list down this way, and thinking about which values are truly important to you, a picture will emerge that shows you more about what really is and isn’t important in your life.
Create your Life Value Statement
- After you’ve narrowed down your values list to the four or five that truly are most important to you, write a few sentences to describe these core values and what they mean to you. This will be your Life Value Statement ~ it’s what your life is about. It’s what you should be spending time, money and effort on.
If every decision you make, and everything you choose to do is filtered through the prism of “Does this fit with my Life Value Statement?” you will be well on your way to living a life of purpose, a life of joy ~ perhaps even choosing JOY on Purpose.
A special thanks to all the women in my recent Joy While You Wait life coaching group, for your wonderful ideas and enthusiasm as we worked through this Life Values Brain-Dump exercise. It was a real honor to work with you and discover our true life values together.
Have a Blessed & Happy Thanksgiving!
