The following exercise can help you start living your best life according to your core values in 30 minutes or less.
1. Determine your core values. From the list below, circle every value that resonates with you. Do not overthink your selection. If you think of a value you possess that is not on the list, write it down.
Abundance
Acceptance
Accountability
Achievement
Adventure
Advocacy
Ambition
Appreciation
Attractiveness
Autonomy
Balance
Being the Best
Benevolence
Boldness
Brilliance
Calmness
Caring
Challenge
Charity
Cheerfulness
Cleverness
Community Commitment Compassion Cooperation Collaboration Consistency Contribution Creativity
Credibility Curiosity
Daring Decisiveness
Dedication Dependability
Diversity
Empathy Encouragement Enthusiasm
Ethics
Excellence Expressiveness
Fairness
Family
Friendships
Flexibility
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Grace
Growth
Flexibility
Happiness
Health
Honesty
Humility
Humor Inclusiveness Independence Individuality Innovation Inspiration Intelligence Intuition
Joy
Kindness Knowledge Leadership Learning
Love
Loyalty
Making a Difference Mindfulness Motivation Optimism
Open-Mindedness Originality
Passion
Performance
Personal Development Proactive Professionalism Quality
Recognition
Risk Taking
Safety
Security
Service
Spirituality
Stability
Peace
Perfection
Playfulness
Popularity
Power
Preparedness Proactivity
Professionalism
Punctuality
Relationships
Reliability
Resilience
Resourcefulness
Responsibility
Responsiveness
Security
Self-Control
Selflessness
Simplicity
Stability
Success
Teamwork
Thankfulness
Thoughtfulness Traditionalism Trustworthiness Understanding
Uniqueness Usefulness
Versatility
Vision
Warmth
Wealth
Well-Being
Wisdom Zeal
2. Group all similar values together from the list of values you just created. Group them in a way that makes sense to you. Create a maximum of five groupings. If you have more than five
groupings, drop the least important grouping(s). See the example below.
Abundance
Acceptance
Appreciation
Balance
Cheerfulness
Growth
Compassion
Encouragement
Health
Fun
Wealth
Inclusiveness
Thankfulness
Personal Development
Happiness
Security
Making a Difference
Thoughtfulness
Spirituality
Humor
Freedom
Kindness
Mindfulness
Well-being
Inspiration
Independence
Love
Joy
3. Choose one word within each grouping that represents the label for the entire group. Again, do not overthink your labels. There are no right or wrong answers. You are discovering the value that resonates with you. See the example below. The label chosen for the grouping is bolded.
Abundance
Acceptance
Appreciation
Balance
Cheerfulness
Growth
Compassion
Encouragement
Health
Fun
Wealth
Inclusiveness
Thankfulness
Personal Development
Happiness
Security
Making a Difference
Thoughtfulness
Spirituality
Humor
Freedom
Kindness
Mindfulness
Well-being
Inspiration
Independence
Love
Joy
4. Add a verb to each value so you can see what it looks like as an actionable core value, for example:
Live in freedom.
Seek opportunities for making a difference.
Act with mindfulness.
Promote well-being.
Multiply happiness.
5. Finally, write your core values in order of priority in your planner, so they are available as an easy reference when you are faced with decisions. For example:
1. Live in freedom.
2. Act with mindfulness.
3. Promote well-being.
4. Multiply happiness.
5. Seek opportunities for making a difference.
This will guide the actions you take toward manifesting your values in the world.