The last three weeks have been a whirl.  Here’s a taste of some of what we’ve done:

• We’ve performed in 13 shows of the pantomime ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ with our local theatre group (Kathryn as the Witch and Julian as the Squire);
• Last week we travelled to London to spend the day with our son to celebrate his birthday and the evening at the Old Vic theatre to see a fabulous performance of ‘Kiss Me Kate’;
• On Monday night this week, we returned to London to see our niece in the premiere of the critically acclaimed film ‘Broken’ (with Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy and Rory Kinnear,) in which she plays the character ‘Sunrise’.  We sat in the cinema alongside well-known people from the world of film, theatre and TV, and after the film there was a marvellous performance by the Electric Wave Bureau (feat. Damon Albarn of Blur & Gorillaz) who produced the sound track to the movie.
• The next day Julian sang and recorded a reworking of the Flanders and Swann song ‘Misalliance’, which a friend of ours is using in a photography competition.

All of this occurring in the working week and alongside writing and working on our soon to be launched products!

So why are we telling you this?

Well we are ordinary people (ok, so we like to think we are a bit special!) on a quest to find and live our idea of brilliant living (See About Us). When we were first trying to define and articulate what brilliant living looked like to us, it quickly became obvious that it wasn’t only about having things like a bigger house, more money, etc. (nice though they might be) but was also about ‘how’ we lived our life and what our priorities were.  So some of the things we decided were important to us included – having fun, being enthusiastic, being with family, spending time doing things we want to do, having integrity, being creative, feeling fulfilled.  These are characteristics of the way we want to live and as such embody some of our personal values.  And the list above represents a brief snapshot in time of how some of these values translate into activities and experiences for us.  Yours of course will be completely different. But before we consider what are your personal values, let’s consider:

What are personal values?

The Oxford dictionary defines ‘values’ as ‘principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life.’

It’s not just about things we might normally think of as ‘values’ like truth and honesty, but is also about the things we value, our priorities.

These are personal to each person although they have often been influenced by parents and/or significant others in one’s life.

Why do personal values matter?

Identifying and understanding our personal values helps us to prioritise what is important to us and what we want to spend our time and energy on (and influence our goals).

We will be better motivated to commit to and achieve goals based on or aligned with our personal values.

Our values are an important element in providing a yardstick to how we judge the quality of our lives.  If we live lives in keeping or alignment with the values we hold dear, then we are likely to be happier than if we don’t.

So what would your list look like?

What are your personal values?

If you would like to determine your personal values then download and complete our Core personal values template – MS Word format (see table below).

This provides a prompt for you to think about and prioritize your own values across different areas of your life.  For example, in terms of your career and work, what is it ‘essential’ that you have from your career and work and what would it be ‘desirable’ for you to have?

You can use the worked example below as a guide, along with our list of personal values to get you started.

List of personal values

Here are some possible value words to help you along:

Abundance, accomplishment; achievement, adventure, altruism, approval, assertiveness, beauty, belonging, boldness, calmness, certainty, change, closeness, commitment, compassion, composure, control, determination, empathy, energy, entertainment, enthusiasm, fairness, growth, harmony, independence, inspiration, integrity, meaning, nonconformity, openness, patience, passion, peace, prosperity, security, self-respect, status, trust, wealth, wisdom.

This list is by no means definitive.  Do add your own.

Example of personal values

What to do next?

1. Fill in the ‘Core personal values template’ [MS Word format] for yourself.
2. What are the three most important values from your list of ‘essential’ personal values?  What does this tell you about yourself?
3. Are there aspects of your life you may have to address to get these values into your life?  What/who are the blocks to you achieving these?  You may need to consider your own attitude as well as those around you.
4. Compare your ‘essential’ personal values to your goals in life [See Two Free Goal Setting Worksheets for your Life Goals].  Do your values resonate with what you thought you wanted to achieve?  Remember, you are more likely to achieve the goals that resonate with your beliefs and values [See Is Goal Setting useless unless up close and personal?].

We will look at overcoming negative beliefs and values in a later blog.