When you ask yourself, “Why does this matter to me?” one potential answer is, “Because it reflects one or more of my deeply-held values.”
Values are related to needs, and there’s often overlap between these categories. One potential difference is that your attunement to different needs will come and go depending on the situation. For example, one day you may be needing space, and on another day you may need closeness.
It can be more useful to think of values as threads that provide a sense of continuity in your life — “If I didn’t care about this, I would be a different person.” Of course, your values can also change and evolve with you, over time!
Getting in touch with your core values can help you see how your intentions connect with these through-lines in your life. You can also use values to help prioritize among goals and to redefine goals to better reflect your deep values.
For this exercise, the recommended outcome is a list of 3-7 core values.
There are four methods to choose from (they’re all the same, just pick your preferred format):
This is the most easy-to-use format! You’ll make a copy of this Padlet board, and then you can drag-and-drop the values into categories.
Getting set up
- Make a free Padlet account.
- Go to the Beyond Goals Values Exercise.
- At the bottom of the left sidebar, click the three dots. Click “Remake”
- Make sure “Copy posts” is selected
Using the template
Feel free to add new values cards, or change the existing ones!
Start by sorting the values into the first three categories: “Very important to me,” “Important to me,” and “Less important / not important“
If you have more than 5 values in the “Very important” category, take those values and sort them into the Pt. 2 categories: “Essential!” and “Also great!”
Do you have 3 to 7 core values in “Essential”? If so, great, you’re done!
If not, are any of your most essential values similar to one another? See if you can make them into groups, and find a word or phrase that describes the essence of that group.
If you already have a Trello account, this is great option! Make a copy of this template by clicking “Create board from template,” and then you can drag-and-drop the values into categories.
Using the template
Feel free to add new values cards, or change the existing ones!
Start by sorting the values into the first three categories: “Very important to me,” “Important to me,” and “Less important / not important“
If you have more than 5 values in the “Very important” category, take those values and sort them into the Pt. 2 categories: “Essential!” and “Also great!”
Do you have 3 to 7 core values in “Essential”? If so, great, you’re done!
If not, are any of your most essential values similar to one another? See if you can make them into groups, and find a word or phrase that describes the essence of that group.
If you’d rather not use Padlet, you can do this exercise in whatever digital format is most comfortable for you. For example, you can use: a regular document, a note-taking app, a spreadsheet, a program where you can drag elements around visually (eg. Miro)
Start with a list of values. Here’s a Google sheet, or you can also use another list, like this one from James Clear.
Feel free to add new values, or change the existing ones!
Sort the values into three categories: “Very important to me,” “Important to me,” and “Less important / not important“
If you have more than 5 values in the “Very important” category, take those values and sort them into the Pt. 2 categories: “Essential!” and “Also great!”
Do you have 3 to 7 core values in “Essential”? If so, great, you’re done!
If not, are any of your most essential values similar to one another? See if you can make them into groups, and find a word or phrase that describes the essence of that group.
If you’d prefer to do this exercise on paper, you can either start by looking at a list of values, or you can print out cards, cut them out, and arrange them into categories.
Start with a list of values. Here’s a Google sheet, or you can also use another list, like this one from James Clear.
If you’d like to print them out as cards, here is a PDF.
Feel free to add new values, or change the existing ones!
Sort the values into three categories: “Very important to me,” “Important to me,” and “Less important / not important“
If you have more than 5 values in the “Very important” category, take those values and sort them into the Pt. 2 categories: “Essential!” and “Also great!”
Do you have 3 to 7 core values in “Essential”? If so, great, you’re done!
If not, are any of your most essential values similar to one another? See if you can make them into groups, and find a word or phrase that describes the essence of that group.