Free

Personal Values Exercise

Swimming against the stream is not easy.

As rewarding as it is to live an authentic life, it can be hard to stay on course when most people around you are going in a different direction.

But how do you know what an authentic life looks like for you? And how do you make sure you stay true to yourself and resist the temptation to fit in?

In my experience, the one thing that will help you most to live YOUR life, is to learn about your personal core values and to remind yourself regularly what they are. This belief is one of the factors that inspired me to write my first book, One Size Does Not Fit All, and it's the reason why I invested a lot of time into developing an exercise for the book that helps readers identify their core values.

I've decided to make this exercise available for free, so more people can live authentic lives. If you want to learn about your personal values, scroll to the bottom to download the exercise, or keep reading to learn more about personal values and why they are so important before completing the exercise.

The Power of Knowing your Core Values

Our values are the things that matter most to us. They are the believes, actions, ideals and things that are more important to us than anything else. Personal values are highly unique, and no two people will have exactly the same. They might use the same words, but the meaning is most likely slightly different.

Personal values can be absolutely anything. Some of the most common ones are things like, family, honesty, knowledge, health and fitness, achievement, financial security, respect, recognition, being valued, being a good friend or family member, or creativity. And there are many, many more. Do a quick Google search for personal values, and you will see there are hundreds of options.

Our personal values are what motivates us, what drives our decision-making, and what determines how we interact with other people. We all have personal values, but not all of us are aware of what they are and how they impact our lives.

Learning about our personal values can have an immensely positive impact on our life and our happiness for several reasons, including these five.

  • Our values are a key factor in our decision making. From seemingly small every-day choices to big life-changing decisions, our values are often the primary factor that determines what we decide. Being fully aware of your personal values helps you make the right decision for you, when it matters most.

  • Living by your personal core values essentially means living the life you're meant to live. Consequently, not living by your values means you're not living 'your' life — you're not true to yourself. It probably comes as no surprise then, that not living by your values is a great source of stress and other negative emotions.

  • Something drives your behaviour. Something determines how you live your life and what choices you make. Values are our key drivers and motivators in life. If it's not your own values that drive your life, then there is a good chance that you're living by someone else's.

  • I think we all dream about living happy and fulfilling lives. However, how can you live life to the fullest when you don't know what 'the fullest' looks like for you? Personal values are like your internal compass. When understood and used correctly, this compass can point us towards the activities, people, and choices that will bring us the most fulfilment and happiness.

  • Most of us are living busy lives, and we often feel like there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. Your values can help you prioritize and de-stress your life. Knowing and living by your values enables you to look at your task list and decide what is truly important and what isn't.

 

Exercise: Identify Your Personal Core Values

As you can see, there are many benefits to learning about your personal values.

To help you identify yours, I've put together a simple 14-step exercise. This exercise, and what you learned above, are extracts from my book One Size Does Not Fit All: Discover Your Personal Path to a Happier Life. Learn more about the book here.

The exercise is based on my own experience as well as extensive research into the personal values as well as happiness in the wider sense.

The interactive exercise consists of three parts. The first part is a series of brainstorming questions to start identifying values that might matter to you. In the second part, we will look for themes to identify those values that matter more to you than others, and in the third part, we will narrow it down to your top values.

Downloading the worksheet with the full 14-step exercise to identify your core values is completely free.

Ready to identify your personal values?

Download the worksheet as a PDF now and figure out what matters most to you. Click on the button below, enter your name and email and you will then see the download link on the next page. You will also receive an email with the download link so you have a record of it in your Inbox in case you want to find it again later on.