“Nailed it!” – The exact words of a recent client after completing this personal values exercise to find out why she’s not happy in her work.
What this worksheet gives you is your top personal values. Your Dealbreakers which are what make you stick at something when the going gets tough, and your Feelgoods; the ones that make you feel happy in your work and give you that warm fuzzy feeling of a job well done.
When you have all of these values present in your work you‘re onto a massive winner. You’ll feel happy and fulfilled AND you’ll feel motivated.
It‘s the closest you’re gonna get to inner peace and a lottery win.
Who’s it for?
You‘ve probably done some sort of “values exercise” in the past. Oh yes, I value SECURITY and INTEGRITY and RESPECT – or COMMUNICATION and CONNECTION and LOVE. But what do they even mean?
I mean, TANGIBLY, what do those words mean? What can you do with them in relation to your lifestyle and business? Let’s be honest: bugger all.
You don‘t need a list of words telling you that you value honesty and respect or whatever because, frankly, they’re pointless without a detailed understanding of what those words deep-down mean to YOU.
The definition of FREEDOM, for example, differs wildly from person to person. Let me give you some examples:
Creativity has an almost infinite meaning. If you identify CREATIVITY as one of your values, you need to understand what it means to you personally, otherwise you could think you need to acting or a painting when really you long to be writing!
A client recently told me she values CREATIVITY. Nice. Wonderful. What the hell does it mean? On its own? Nothing. But what this exercise identified was that she enjoys expressing her creativity through graphic design. Now THAT is something she can use!
Let‘s do another: Another client identified with WELLBEING. Well, that’s a bit vague, isn‘t it? What’s she supposed to do with that? On its own, she can do nothing with it. What this exercise identified for her was that she feels happy when those around her are taking care of their health. (That’s better, eh?)
One more? OK, one client identified that he likes STRUCTURE in his work. On its own that word is pretty pointless. But what this exercise further identified for him is that although he enjoys an element of flexibility in his work, unless there’s an underlying structure to it, he will quit – he will literally walk out the door! What a fundamental piece of information that he previously had NO awareness of!
Here’s how it works:
Offer expires in:
Jenn Cairnie
“If you haven’t done this exercise then you must! I did it and even though I had an idea of what was important to me I never saw it so plainly in front of me before. What clarity! I refer back to my personal values all the time now to see if I’m pursuing what’s right for me. And boy did it light a fire under me when I saw that my values didn’t align at all to my current job. So now I’m off pursuing my higher purpose! Yay!”
