Identify your core values

• Deep down inside, what is important to you?
• What do you want your life to stand for?
• What are the personal values you must honor or a part of you withers?
• What are the values that are core to the way you do your job, maintain your relationships, parent your children, and/or lead others?
• What sort of qualities do you want to cultivate as a person?
• How do you want to be in your relationships with others?
• What do you represent? What do you believe in?    
• What are your wants versus your musts?
• What were the times in your life when you were happiest and most fulfilled? What other factors contributed to this?
• When in your life were you most proud? What factors contributed to this?
• What relationships in your life do you value most?
• Think of a person you admire or respect. What do you think their most important values might be? What strengths or qualities do they have that you most admire?
• Who are your heroes? Why? How are you like them?
• What change would you like to see in the world?
• What kind of person do you enjoy spending time with? How can you be this person to others?
• What qualities do you want to embody?
• What values must you have in your life to feel fulfilled?
• What types of values keep showing up in your life?
• What endeavours will stimulate and inspire you as well as tie you to what you value most?
• If you could do anything, what would you do? Why is that important to you?
• Consider a meaningful moment—a peak experience that stands out. What was happening to you? What was going on? What values were you honoring at this time?
• How do you want others to remember you?
• What do you most love to do? Why?
• What must you have in your life to be fulfilled?
• What are the values you absolutely MUST honour – or a part of you dies?
• How important to you are each of the followin: Family, Marriage and intimate relationships, Parenting, Friendship and interpersonal relationships, Professional life, Academic life, Leisure and recreation, Spirituality, Citizenship, Self-care?
• Beyond your basic human needs, what must you have in your life to experience fulfilment? Creative self-expression? A strong level of health and vitality? A sense of excitement and adventure? Surrounded by beauty? Always learning?
• What are behaviours in others you approve of and dislike? What does this tell you about your values?
• Of the things you possess, what do you value most?
• Using one to three sentences, what would your epitaph be?
• Consider a time when you got angry, frustrated, or upset.What was going on? What were you feeling? Now flip those feelings around. What value is being suppressed?
• From this list of values to live by, which would be your top 10?  Your top 3?

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Analyse your values (once you’ve created a list of your core values)

• How do your values make you feel? Do you feel they are consistent with who you are? Are they personal to you?
• Do you see any values that feel inconsistent with your identity (as if they belong to someone else, like an authority figure or society) and not you?
• Which of your values have you inherited from others (e.g. your culture, society, family, friends, company) ?
• Which of your values are “should” values – values that you follow because you feel it is necessary or expected by others?
• Which of your values are “chosen values” – values that you choose to hold onto and live from?
• What values do you sell out on first? Which values are sometimes neglected? Where are you too flexible?
• Who in your life shares the same values that you do?
• Where do your deepest values come from?
• Which values challenge or stretch you the most?
• Think back to a different stage of your life. How were your values different? How are they the same?
• How do your values differ from your friends and family? How do they differ from the society you live in?
• Is there anything you once considered important that is not important to you any more? What changed?
• Think of a value you have that you did not use to have, or a value that has become more important to you. What life experiences led to this value changing? How does this change effect you now?
• What values do you find hard to live up to?
• Do your values show up differently in different settings? Think of three people from different parts of your life (e.g. family, friends, co-workers, authority figures) How do you think each of then would describe your values? What evidence do they have?
• Do you feel that any of your values conflict with each other?  How?  After reflection, which would you give a higher priority if you were forced to choose?
• Would you be comfortable and proud to tell your values to people you respect and admire?
• Do your values make you feel good about yourself?
• Do your values represent things you would support, even if your choice isn’t popular and it puts you in the minority?

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Do you live a life true to your values?

• Is your life a reflection of the values most important to you?  How can you make it more so?
• Are you living in integrity with your deepest values? How can you live with even more integrity and have fun in the process?
• Do you feel you are true to yourself in the way you live your life?
• Do you feel you have integrity as a person?  Why or why not?
• Do you have a sense of your life purpose? Is it aligned with your values?
• What is most important to you when making hard decisions?
• Would your family and friends be able to tell you what you values are through observing the way you live your life?
• Do you consciously have your values in mind when making decisions?
• Do your actions and behaviours align with your values?
• What obstacles stop you living in accordance with your values?  How can you overcome these?

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