Personal Values

Understanding and getting clear about your personal values is something I spend a lot of time on with my clients. Values are what guide us. When we live according to our values we feel alive, we feel life is good! When we are not honoring our values, we feel uneasy and yucky. Most of my clients have never taken the time to discover their values. Once you discover your values and make decisions to honor them, you will see a shift in the quality of your life.

Here's an exercise that I recently found that is a great way to uncover your values. (Unfortunately, I can not give credit where the credit is due, as I don't recall where I read it.)

Think of someone you admire, it can be a family member, someone from history, or a sport figure, etc. Now, write down ten things you admire about this person. For example, I admired my father in law. So, I might write, "He never allowed obstacles to get into his way."

After you compile your list, change the he/she to "I". So, I would write, "I never allow obstacles to get into my way."

See what this does? Can you take them in as your values? These qualities are also within you.
Perhaps you have not honored them as fully as is possible. So, now the challenge!! How can you start living those values more fully in your every day? For me, it's being aware of the obstacles that come my way, and just continuing to move around, over, or through them! I have a strong personal value of challenge! The challenge to overcome whatever comes my way.