5 Simple Steps to Clarifying Your Values
Having looked at the beauty of values clarification, I would love to further explore values clarification by highlighting some simple steps that can help you with clarifying your values.
1. IDENTIFY YOUR CURRENT SPOT IN LIFE
Where am I at this point in my life?
Values vary according to where you are and what roles you are playing currently in your life? That is to say your values at every point in your life may be different as you advance from one phase in life to the other.
Hence, there is a connection between the role you play at a time with the values that you want to see or that are associated with it. When a man is single, his role would be different from when he gets married and as such there are certainly going to be changes in values.
The role of a teacher is different from that of a student; and in a family, the roles of a husband differ from those of a wife.
Therefore, knowing where you are at in life and what role(s) are expected of you is the first step to values clarification.
So the question you need to ask and answer is: Where am I at this point in my life and what is expected of me?
2. IDENTIFY WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU AT THAT SPOT IN LIFE
What do I want to see in my life at this point?
What was important to you as a single person may no longer be so important to you when you become married.
When I was a Master’s Degree student, my most important goal (around which I clarified my values) was to conduct a very good research and publish enough papers to gain me a scholarship for a PhD. Now, I’m on a PhD scholarship. I am now a married man. This new phase of my life requires I review my goals and consequently my values, which is currently to love my wife and establish a solid foundation for my young family.
There was a time when I was just a follower and my most important goal then was to support my leader to achieve the aim he sets for our organisation. My values then, which included commitment, faithfulness, support, etc were tied to that goal. When, I later became a leader, heading a youth faith-based organisation, my most important goal became to lead the team to achieve its vision. Hence my values included all those as a leader but progressed to include excellence, passion, drive, team spirit, etc.
The same process may apply to you. The question you need to ask and answer is: Where am I at this point in my life? Am I student, a mother, a leader, or a rising entrepreneur? This helps to simplify the process and makes your life more in sync with what is most important per time.
The question to ask and answer is: What do I want to see in my life and this point and how do I want to achieve it/them?
3. PRIORITIZE EACH ITEM ACCORDING TO DIFFERING CATEGORIES
Do I have these important things I want to see in my life arranged in order of most to least valuable?
When you finally get to know what your role at a point in life is and what is important to you at that point, you will need to sort them in an orderly manner of most important to least important.
Note that this may vary according to a personal or corporate vision, and as pointed out earlier, also by what point you are in life at that moment. Keeping a priority list helps you to maintain focus and narrow your values to a simple, measurable, actionable, achievable and repeatable-over-time (SMAART) list.
People who do this move on faster to have better clarified values than any person who randomly moves from one value to another. Prioritization of values helps you to invest the right amount of time, energy and resources in building up those values.
For example, when my major goal was to publish several research papers, my most important values where improving my research, data analyses and report writing skills. As a result, I invested several hours learning and practicing these and also invested finances when there was need.
Here, the question to ask and answer is: Do I have an organised or orderly list of my values prioritized?
4. LIST EACH PRIORITY AND PLACE WHERE YOU CAN SEE IT DAILY
Do I reflect on my values daily?
This point is as simple as it is or sounds. When your priority list is complete, print it and stick it to places in your home or office where you can see them daily. You may have yours in your diary or daily journal. This will help to remind you of what you have commitment to do with your life at that point in time.
What you see daily and remind yourself of, you will easily remember to act upon.
When making the list, it is important to put them in the first person format. This gives a sense of responsibility as well. For example, you can write: I want to become morecommitment in my job as a teacher.
The question to ask and answer here is: How often do I take time to think about my values?
5. CONSCIOUSLY ACT THEM OUT DAILY
Do I take conscious actions to reproduce my values daily?
Now that you have gone through all steps to get to this point, it is important to mention that written values make no sense if they are not consciously acted out daily when a situation demanding them confronts us in the face.
You need to know that everyday life challenges and presents you with the opportunity to develop and imbibe your most important values. However, it is your responsibility to decide whether to take the opportunity and make it worth-while or just excuse it away.
If this makes sense to you, let me know. Leave a comment or your thought below.
This post first appeared on www.mylifeexcel.com
