The Importance of Values When Setting Goals
Why Values Are Important When Setting Goals
We are all unique.
Although we all seem to want the most basic of needs in life such as shelter, food, love, respect, the truth, etc our uniqueness determines what we value most.
Setting goals that are generic might not work for us if we don’t know what we value the most. Identifying what drives you will be the best predictor of your success.
Your goals should be set around these values.
In this article, we discuss where values come from, why values are important and there is an exercise to help you determine your core personal values.
Where do Our Values come from?
Values stem from our beliefs and convictions, which then guide and direct our behaviors. They are the essence of who each of us is, the foundation of our unique self-expression.
Values help us to act with integrity. When our life priorities are aligned with our values, we are well on our way to experiencing fulfillment in our lives.
Whatever values a person has will help paint the picture of the life that person wants to live. What a person holds up as important on the inside ends up being reflected, just like a mirror, in the physical world around them.
But if a person is not living in alignment with their values, a disconnect between who they are on the inside and the life they are living on the outside is then created. This disconnect can easily zap a person’s energy and derail them from their goals and dreams.
A good reason why so many people hate their jobs is for this reason. Spending 8 – 9 hours a day doing something that is of no interest to you is incongruent with your value system.
I must point out here that some people who are hugely driven by money will not feel the same disdain towards their jobs. In this case, the value they put on money is of the most importance.
On the contrary, people who love what they do for a living will tell you without hesitation that they would be doing it anyway, even if they never got paid to do it.
Identifying Your Personal Values
To take the first step in determining the core values working just below the surface of who you are, take a few minutes to perform the following values identification exercise.
We derive a great deal of personal fulfillment when we live out our values.
Still, life is one of our choosing.
Find out what core values you have and then decide whether you are expressing them in your life.
Identifying Your Personal Core Values Exercise
- From the Personal Core Values List below, highlight the 25 words that best represent what matters most to you in your life.
| Acceptance Accomplish Achievement Acquisition Adventure Alignment Altruism Amusement Assistance Attractiveness Authenticity Awareness Beauty Calm Charity Community Compassion Connection Consciousness Consideration Constancy Contentment Contribution Cooperation Courage Creativity Dependability Dignity Discovery Diversity Education Effectiveness Elegance Wellbeing Encourage |
Empathy Encouragement Energy Enlightenment Entertainment Environment Equality Ethics Excellence Experiment Expertise Exquisiteness Fairness Faith Family Feeling good Fitness Freedom Friendship Fun Generosity Gratitude Guidance Happiness Harmony Health Honesty Honor Hope Imagination Independence Influence Innovation Inspiration Instruction |
Integrity Intelligence Inventiveness Justice Kindness Knowledge Laughter Leadership Learning Love Loyalty Mastery Merriment Nobility Nutrition Order Organization Originality Peace Peacefulness Perception Personal Development Play Positive attitude Power Preparation Presence Provider Quest Radiance Recognition Relatedness Relationships |
Reliability Religious Resourcefulness Respect Responsibility Responsiveness Safety Security Self-awareness Self-worth Sensations Serenity Service Simplicity Spirituality Stability Stimulation Strength Strengthen Success Superiority Teaching Tenderness Tranquility Trust Truthfulness Understanding Victory Vision Wealth Wholeness Winning |
| For an alternative (and more in-depth) online resource you might want to try Dr. John Demartinis FREE Value Determination Process. You can find it here. |
Once you have identified the 25 words that resonate with you the most, place them in groups of 5. Then give each group a name (for example, health, wealth, or spiritual).
Now rate yourself out of 10 on how well you are doing in each of these core areas of your life. Perhaps in the health area, you are only a 3/10 but in the spiritual area, you are a 7/10. There is no right or wrong.
The last part of the exercise would be the most important:
Reflect on the results
- What insights have you gained from conducting this values identification exercise?
- What kind of person would you be if you were living out each of your core values to their highest degree?
- What connection can you find between the core values you have identified and your highest hopes in dreams for your life?
Further Actions To Take regarding the importance of Values
Values exist whether we recognize their presence in us or not.
But by having a greater understanding of them you can develop plans, set goals, and make decisions that will honor them.
Determining your core values will help you to discover what’s truly important to you.
Making choices in life based on your core values won’t always be easy, but since your core values are important and such a central part of who you are and who you want to be, honoring them is crucial.
The core values this exercise has revealed for you should only be regarded as the beginning of the process of determining the essence of who you are.
In the days ahead, keep asking yourself what and why values are important to you and what you really care about and want for your life.
| Actionable Idea:
Recall those moments in your past when you were most happy and fulfilled. What values were being honored in those moments? Also, think about the times when you were most frustrated. What values were being violated in those moments? |
Also Read:
5 Powerful Self-Improvement Tips for Everyday Use
In Conclusion
Certainly, there are more values working within you than just the five values revealed here. Continue the work of discovering your other unique qualities, beliefs, principles, and convictions.
And most importantly, focus on all the ways you can incorporate your values more into your life each day.
This is where you will find your greatest happiness and fulfillment.
Have you considered the importance of values when setting your goals? Leave a comment
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The Importance of Values When Setting Goals
This is a really detailed topic and you’ve done a great job writing about it. Values are just as important as the goals being set. This is great to see because your blog is very similar to mine, good luck on your blog.
Thank you and likewise