Life today is so busy. From the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed, most of us are just scrambling to keep up with all the demands placed on our time.
If it’s not our spouse, it’s work demanding something from us. If it’s not work, then it’s our kids. If it’s not our kids, then it’s the family. If it’s not the family, then it’s the community.
It can all get pretty overwhelming, especially if you are not clear on what you value in life or if you have never taken the time to actually determine what has meaning to you.
Here’s a quick exercise for you to do to find out what’s really important to you.
Performing this exercise is the first step in finding meaning for your life.
Grab a piece of paper and a pen and slowly read through the following words. Write down about 10-15 words that you know (know, not think) are important to you as a human being.
Which words resonate with you?
There’s no judging here so don’t select the words that you think you want to be someday. Select what’s important and relevant for the person you are today.
Go through the list and only select the words that speak to your heart.
- Abundance
- Acceptance
- Accomplish
- Action
- Acquire
- Admiration
- Adventure
- Amusement
- Artistic
- Assist
- Attain
- Attentive
- Attractive
- Aware
- Beautiful
- Bonding
- Brave
- Build
- Calm
- Capable
- Coach
- Communication
- Community
- Compassion
- Compete
- Connection
- Contentment
- Control
- Courage
- Danger
- Daring
- Dedication
- Dependable
- Design
- Devotion
- Direct
- Dream
- Educate
- Encouragement
- Energize
- Engage
- Enjoy
- Excellence
- Experiment
- Expert
- Facilitate
- Fame
- Family
- Freedom
- Friendship
- Fun
- Glamour
- Grace
- Gratitude
- Greatest
- Guide
- Health
- Holy
- Honesty
- Honour
- Humility
- Humour
- Imagination
- Impact
- Improvement
- Independent
- Influence
- Informative
- Ingenuity
- Instruct
- Integrity
- Invest
- Joy
- Laughter
- Learn
- Love
- Loyalty
- Marriage
- Mastery
- Model
- Open-minded
- Opportunistic
- Originality
- Passion
- Patience
- People
- Perfection
- Perseverance
- Persistence
- Planner
- Pleasure
- Provide
- Relationships
- Religious
- Resilience
- Responsible
- Risk
- Romance
- Satisfaction
- Security
- Sensitivity
- Sensual
- Serenity
- Serve
- Sex
- Spirit
- Sports
- Stimulate
- Strength
- Tenderness
- Thoughtful
- Trilling
- Touch
- Triumph
- Trustworthy
- Truth
- Understand
- Uplift
- Wealth
- Wisdom
- Work
Now that we have the 10-15 words from the list that spoke to you, go through your list word by word and narrow down your selection to 5 words that mean the most to you. If there is a word that’s missing from the list, then add it.
When you’ve narrowed down the list to your top 5 words, then you have selected the values that mean the most to you.
Now, ask yourself -are you living your life according to these values?
In order to find meaning in your life, you must be very clear on what you value in your life so not only can you recognize the values when they happen but also so that you can move towards those values. Don’t be pulled in directions or perform actions that do not adhere to your values. Examine your daily decisions to see if they fit against what you’ve chosen as your most important values in life.
It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. – Roy Disney
Your values list will determine what’s most important in your life. Spent your valuable time on earth according to these values and make decisions that reflect what’s important to you.
One more question - Are you pretending to be something that you’re not? Go through your list so that the values represent your true authentic self.
Related Posts:
1. Using Visualization To Get To Point Z From Point A
2. The Only Words You’ll Need To Overcome Your Fears
3. How To Use 10-10-10 To Get Unstuck
4. Do You Need To Let Go and Forgive?
5. Are You Being Your True Authentic Self?
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Karen,
That’s a worthwhile exercise that I think everyone should partake in from time to time. In the daily hustle bustle, we forget what we’re actually suppose to be doing…
Have a great weekend!
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..Why You Need to Validate Your Life Decisions
Hi Moon,
Thanks. I thought I could use the reminder and so could many others.
Have a great weekend!
Karen
This is a great exercise Karen!
This helps me to greatly determine what’s important to me in life! I’ve never done an exercise like this. This is great advice. Thanks for sharing!!
Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey´s last blog ..Are You In Indifference Mode?
Hi Jarrod,
Yes, it can be a real eye-opening experience when you determine the values that are really important to you, rather than what you think they should be.
Glad that I was able to introduce you to something new
Thanks,
Karen
Hey Karen, that was a wonderful post, I will be sure to try out this exercise and try to figure out where I want to go in life and what I want from it, thank you Sally
Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It And Need YOUR Help
Welcome Sally,
I hope you are able to use this first step in realizing what’s important in one’s life.
Glad that you liked the article.
Thanks,
Karen
hi karen,
how are you?
hmmh!!! 2nd homework in a week lol!!
i will try out this exercise in the mean time, let me get back to the first homework (what if you had only one week)
take care and enjoy the rest of tthe day
ayo´s last blog ..7 Lessons Learnt From A Break Up
Hi Ayo,
Yes, I am making you work for it!
I trust that you will already have your values identified, but if not, the exercise can really help you focus on what’s important in life.
Hope you have a fantastic weekend.
Thanks,
Karen
This is quite a task Karen, I think I’m going to learn a thing or two on this one, although I’m not sure I really want to find out
Have a great weekend.
Maria´s last blog ..Video Friday – Get Jiggy With It
Hi Maria,
There should be no surprises in doing this task, I hope. The advantage is narrowing down the values to the few that really mean the most to you and minimizing the other that don’t mean as much. Life can be too overwhelming with so many different priorities that the exercise of narrowing down the core values can help you make daily decisions.
Thanks and I hope you have a great weekend, too
Karen
Thanks Karen, Writing about what is important for us helps put us in the right place.
Thanks for sharing
Dia´s last blog ..How to overcome shyness?
Hi Dia,
I couldn’t agree more!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic weekend.
Karen
Karen,
I had a hard time narrowing these down to five. Is it possible to live all 15?!?
Hi Tess,
Well, I suppose so but then it might be too much competing values. Ideally you should concentrate on only 3-5 as your main values and make decisions based on them. Good luck narrowing down your choices
Thanks,
Karen
Karen, that’s a fairly comprehensive list. It’s certainly a worthwhile exercise, by no means easy or one to be taken lightly. This is one exercise I’m going to try now and repeat at regular intervals. Thank you for sharing this.
Regards
Paul
Hi Paul,
I agree that it’s not an easy exercise to filter down values to 5 from the list, but it definitely allows you to focus on what’s important in your life.
Just by doing the exercise you are able to know which values mean the most to you as you live your daily life with its varied demands. For example, if you select Family as no 1. then you won’t stay late at work at miss your son’s 1st baseball tournament.
Glad that you liked the exercise.
Thanks,
Karen
This is a very good exercise to help get the gears turning. Going through the list of values can be a good wake-up call for anyone that is trying to figure out what they want from life and what they need to do to achieve it. As you may already know, I’m a big fan of keeping notes and making lists in order to plan things out as thoroughly as I can, and your exercise is a great way to help become the person that you want to be, even if it’s done one day at a time. Thanks for sharing!
Steve Scott Site´s last blog ..4 Signs of Bad Time Management
Hi Steve,
You’re so right. It’s a great way of narrowing down and focusing on what’s really important in your life. It’s about taking the first step in recognizing what’s important to you and then living according to your values.
Thanks,
Karen
Woah, that is quite a long list. I somehow think, Karen, that this post would have a continuation. May I ask if it does?
Julius´s last blog ..Can Blind People See?
Hi Julius,
If it did, what do you think the next step should be?
probably, the next step would be to change our ways so that they would be appropriate to the values we selected in the list. just my guess.
Julius´s last blog ..Can Blind People See?
Great list Karen. I did it on here via text editor although have only got as far as my list of 10-15 words (I have 22!) What I find fascinating is that I have some words with similar roots (for example, laughter, fun, satisfaction, humour) which would have given me a big kick up the bottom about what motivates me. I said ‘would have’ because I finally recognised my main motivators (values?) a few months back. Interestingly, I found out by doing a sort of quiz thing, not dissimilar to this
Prior to that, I had no idea what motivated me!
Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Friday Friend: @Maria_Muir #FollowFriday
Hi El,
It looks like having fun and laughter in your life is something very important in your life. I could tell that already just by knowing you
Glad that you have experience with this exercise. Perhaps going through it a second time uncovered some new information about yourself.
Thanks,
Karen
I was surprised at the ones I chose and even more surprised at the top five… are they authentic… yes… I’m going through a time in my life when I am rethinking everything from how I live to how I love… awesome way to live after fifty…or anytime…
Welcome Mary,
Oh, I definitely agree with the awesome way to live part! At any age, it’s important to know what’s our priorities and what has meaning in our lives. Otherwise, we are susceptible to anyone’s influence in our lives. When we are clear on what what we stand for, we are able to make better decisions for our lives. That’s fantastic that you have chosen authentic values for your life, but I’m surprised that *you’re surprised* at the words you’ve chosen. But, it’s great that you now have your list of values.
Thanks for stopping by,
Karen