Values-guided living
At this moment, do you feel that you are living the life that you want to live? Do you feel that your life is centered on what is most important to you?
We are all capable of building (and enjoying!) lives that are meaningful and fulfilling to us. One way to do this is by identifying--and then acting in accordance with--our values.
Our values can serve as a compass--they can provide us with both direction and meaning in our lives. By identifying, and acting in accordance with, our values, we can be empowered to actively and fully pursue the life that we want to live. See below for some helpful exercises!
We invite you to reference the Values Guide during this exercise.
Take a moment to reflect on your own values. What are your values? How do you know that they are your values?
Now, take a moment to reflect on your current behaviors. To what extent are your current behaviors in accordance--or discordance--with your values? How do you feel when you are behaving in accordance--versus discordance--with your values?
Once we have identified our values, we can begin to practice values-based living. You might be thinking: “This sounds great but where do I even start?”
As outlined in the Values Driven Goals Workflow, we can practice values-based living in a few steps. It can be helpful to start broad by picking one value domain that you might want to focus on. Once we select a value domain, we can then narrow-in on specific values and outline ways in which we can honor those values through our S.M.A.R.T. goals.
We invite you to use the Values Driven Goals Worksheet to guide you through these steps. We recommend using this worksheet about once a week--but you can use it as often as it is helpful for you. After lots of practice, you might not even need this worksheet anymore!
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Take a moment to reflect on some challenges that might arise when you practice living in accordance with your values. What has stopped you from honoring your values in the past? What might stop you in the future?
Common barriers to living in accordance with our values include those that are internal--like feeling low levels of motivation or high levels of anxiety--and those that are external--like major work deadlines or financial limitations.
One way to cope with these barriers is remembering that values-based living is inherently flexible!
Humans cannot live in accordance with all of our values at every single moment on every single day. But, this doesn’t mean that we don’t have values!
Our values can change across time and can depend on our varying contexts and needs. Sometimes, we may need or want to shift how we prioritize and honor different values and value domains.
For example, if someone has many finals to study for, they might prioritize their values within the domain of Career/Employment and Education/Personal Growth. However, during spring break, this same person might prioritize their values within the domain of Friendship/Social Life and Recreation/Leisure. During both of these times, this person might hold all of these values, but they might “show up” with these values in different ways. For example, this person might form a study group with a friend during finals to honor their value of connection, and this person might read a book about a new topic during spring break to honor their value of gaining knowledge.