BTS: Adding Value to Life

Personal Values

Before I did this exercise I thought I knew what my values were. I’d like to think that I’m a pretty grounded person, one who knows who she is and what her values are, but narrowing them down was HARD.

I started out with a list of possible values. It was easy to cross of the ones that were absolute “no’s” for me, but it got tricky when there were some that I hoped were my values, but frankly just weren’t. I had reduced my list to 5 or so values and began to ask myself some questions. Was this really me? Did I actually value this as much as I hoped I did?

I really had to analyze my life and my priorities in order to get the answers. For example, I’ve always idealized this adventurous, fun, outgoing version of myself that just simply never was. I thought I was adventurous until I realized that my idea of fun was curling up on the couch with a good book.

Stepping away from the list helped me process the difference between who I wanted to be and what I thought I valued VS. who I really am and what I actually value. It took some time, several different combinations, but I finally discovered my values: spirituality, self-realization, communication, helping others, growth, and family.