The values compass
We will now begin to explore your values and what you wish for life. To do this you will have to fill out what is called a values compass. A values compass is divided into different life areas that together present a picture of your life.
You will fill out the values compass a little at a time as we move through the different areas of life during the rest of this course. For most people, the values that are important to them can be completely different, depending on whether it is their work life and career, their family life or relationships, or their own time, health, or well-being.
This week we will zoom in on the values that relate specifically to your personal development and “own time”:
- Personal development
- Own time
The purpose of this exercise is to discover your values and the core of you in relation to areas of life that relate to your identity. What would you like to experience in the life areas of personal development and own time? What is important to you regardless of your age and what your life looks like today? Try to identify the direction you want your life to take in these life areas and fill out the schema (attached below) with the 3 most important values for each area.
On the sheet below, we have gathered a wide range of suggestions for different values that you can use as inspiration for the exercise. You can print out the sheet and if you wish, you can cut out all the little "value cards" as a set of "playing cards" to shuffle and sort.
Feel free to be inspired by the values on the sheet:
It is okay to spend some time on the exercise. You may find it easy to complete the form right away, or you may need to put it down and pick it up again in a day or two. Remember, living in alignment with your values is not about doing what you think you should do. It is about doing what makes you feel vital and alive. You will not feel vital and alive if you make your choices based on what you think others expect of you.
Completing the values compass
Once you have selected the 3 most important values within each life area, rate on a scale from 0-10 how important each value is within that life area (Importance). The higher the number you choose, the more important the value is. If the number is low, it may indicate that the value you chose was not the most important one after all. Try to see if there are other values that are more important and choose one of them instead.
Next, on a scale from 0-10, rate the extent to which you feel this value is present in this area of life right now, i.e., how much you are currently living in accordance with this value (Reality).
Finally, calculate the difference between importance and reality. The difference reflects how much you are currently living in alignment with your values in each life area, or how much you need to change in order to live more in alignment with your values.
The smaller the value, the more you are living in alignment with your values.
Now save this sheet until we get to session 9 in this course. In session 9 called "Value-based action", we will look at how you can change things in your life to live more in line with your values.
