Study this list of
values and pick the top 12 values that best represent what you consider your
core values to be. Notice that some of
the values listed are similar or even the same.
Try to pick the word that best describes what’s most important to you in
life. Feel free to add to the list in
the blanks provided if you think of a value that isn’t listed. List your top 12 in the spaces provided below.
- Abundance
- Acceptance
- Accountability
- Accomplishment
- Accuracy
- Achievement
- Acknowledgment
- Adaptability
- Adventure
- Aggressiveness
- Agility
- Alertness
- Ambition
- Appreciation
- Assertiveness
- Audacity
- Awareness
- Balance
- Beauty
- Belonging
- Boldness
- Bravery
- Brilliance
- Calm
- Candor
- Carefulness
- Caring
- Certainty
- Challenge
- Change
- Clarity
- Cheerfulness
- Cleanliness
- Collaboration
- Comfort
- Commitment
- Communication
- Compassion
- Community
- Competence
- Competition
- Confidence
- Connection
- Consistency
- Contentment
- Contribution
- Control
- Courage
- Courtesy
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Daring
- Dependability
- Decisiveness
- Delight
- Desire
- Determination
- Devotion
- Dignity
- Diligence
- Discipline
- Discovery
- Diversity
- Drive
- Duty
- Eagerness
- Education
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Elegance
- empathy
- Endurance
- Energy
- Employment
- Enthusiasm
- Equality
- Excellence
- Execution
- Expertise
- Exploration
- Expressiveness
- Fairness
- Faith
- Fame
- Family
- Fidelity
- Flexibility
- Focus
- Forgiveness
- Fortitude
- Freedom
- Friendship
- Frugality
- Fun
- Generosity
- Giving
- Goodness
- Grace
- Gratitude
- Growth
- Guidance
- Happiness
- Harmony
- Hard Work
- Health
- Helpfulness
- Heroism
- Holiness
- Honesty
- Honor
- Hopefulness
- Hospitality
- Humility
- Humor
- Imagination
- Improvement
- Influence
- Ingenuity
- Innovation
- Insightfulness
- Inspiration
- Integrity
- Intelligence
- Intensity
- Intimacy
- Intuitiveness
- Inventiveness
- Joy
- Justice
- Kindness
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Learning
- Liberty
- Logic
- Longevity (life)
- Love
- Loyalty
- Mastery
- Maturity
- Meaning
- Merit
- Mindfulness
- Modesty
- Money
- Motivation
- Openness
- Opportunity
- Optimism
- Order
- Organization
- Peace
- Perceptiveness
- Perseverance
- Persistence
- Pleasure
- Poise
- Power
- Practicality
- Precision
- Privacy
- Proactivity
- Problem-Solving
- Prosperity
- Punctuality
- Quality
- Quiet
- Rationality
- Recognition
- Relationships
- Reliability
- Religion
- Resourcefulness
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Righteousness
- Risk-taking
- Romance
- Safety
- Security
- Selflessness
- Self-esteem
- Seriousness
- Service
- Simplicity
- Sincerity
- Skill
- Speed
- Spirit
- Stability
- Strength
- Style
- Teamwork
- Timeliness
- Tolerance
- Tradition
- Tranquility
- Trust
- Truth
- Unity
- Variety
- Well-being
- Wisdom
1. 7.
2. 8.
3. 9.
4. 10.
5. 11.
6 12.
Now take a look at this list and really
scrutinize what you’ve come up with.
Reduce your list of 12 to the six that are most important to you. Compare values side-by-side to decide which
really has most meaning for you and list them in the spaces below.
1. 4.
2. 5.
3. 6.
Prioritize your core values in order of
importance, with the most important fist.
Think about, if you had to defend or fight for these values, which would
“make the cut,” and in what order they would be listed.
Finally, list your top 3 values below:
1.
2.
3.
The purpose of this activity is to bring
your attention to the core guidelines of what you want from your life. Oftentimes, when we live outside of or even
distanced from these values, there begins to be an emotional toll. Knowing our values and living in accordance
with these ideals is central to our overall quality and sustainability in
life. In clarifying the principles most
important to you, you can use this information to evaluate situations and
choices in your life in order to help you make decisions and changes to move
toward value-congruent living.