This Week's Success Strategy: Identify Your Top Values & Design Your Life Around Them
This week’s success strategy is all about identifying your top values. Now, when I say values, I don’t mean ethical values. What I’m talking about here are the things that are most important to you and the activities you love to do. When you are expressing your top values, you feel most like yourself—alive, energized & fulfilled.
For example, two of my personal top values are family & relationships and to lead & inspire. So for me, when I’m spending quality time with family or friends, or coaching my clients or speaking in front of an audience about the things I believe in, I’m at my personal best.
Here is a worksheet to help you identify what your true values are: Identifying Your Top Values (PDF). It includes over 150 values to choose from. Just follow the instructions to come up with your top four. Once you have that information, the objective is to do everything you can to orient your life around those 4 values.
Values give our lives meaning, joy, and happiness, but for many of us, we end up getting so busy with other responsibilities and unresolved issues that we’re left with little time to honor our values. When this happens, we wind up feeling irritated, frustrated, bored or complacent. Ideally, it should work in the reverse.
Your values should guide every decision you make—especially those around how you’ll spend your time, energy, money and other resources. And as you set your goals for your life and career, you want to make sure that they are fully aligned with your values. I guarantee that, if you commit to doing this, you’ll find yourself feeling more “alive,” energized and fulfilled than you likely have been in the past.
Don't be fatuous
2:24 am on Thursday, June 7, 2012
You have to be kidding me...
You are using the Patch (AOL) blog space to run a blatant ad...
As I am playing along w/ the home version... I took the liberty of downloading your "true values" assessment...
It seems to be a copywrighted work from some Coach U, Inc., published by John Wiley and Sons... the "adapted from" does little to remove the "intellectual property" stink face shown by any among your readers noting the plagarism...
Dana D'Orsi
9:30 am on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Thank you for your comment. I’d like to address your concerns. First off, as a student at Coach U., I have permission to use their assessments, including this one. In fact, several authors – who also attended Coach U – have used this particular assessment in their published books, and if you were to Google “Tru Values Program,” you’d find that many other coaches provide the assessment on their websites as a free tool for their readers. Please note that nowhere in the video or post do I claim that I created the tool myself.
In regards to your feeling that my post sounded like an “ad,” that is certainly not my intent. Yes, I make my living as a coach and provide those services to my paying clients…However, my goal is to share my tips & strategies for success with as many others as possible – whether they are paying clients or not – in an effort to inspire and empower them to design and live their best lives.
If you have additional concerns, I would be more than happy to address them personally. You can contact me at dana@best-life-solutions.com.
Best,
Dana
Janet Johnson
10:07 am on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Hi Dana,
You are absolutely right. We really need to focus and to stay centered to who we are. Thank you for reminding me. I look forward to checking out this tool!
My best,
Janet
Dana D'Orsi
9:04 am on Saturday, June 9, 2012
Thanks, Janet! Hope you enjoy the tool!
Denise
10:35 am on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Well said Dana. The purpose of post is to share high value high content so others can be reminded or introduced to a perspective. In other words, think about things from a new vantage point. Famous your comments provide an opportunity to clarify what the guidelines and permission to reproduce given by Coach U to the students only. Thanks for sharing. I think many are confused by the liberal and generous guidelines Coach U offers to their students.
Dana D'Orsi
9:05 am on Saturday, June 9, 2012
Thanks for your comment, Denise. I agree -- many are surprised with how generous Coach U is with their materials. I love how they come from such a place of abundance rather than a "lack" mentality!
Lori Byron
4:56 pm on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Hi Dana,
I love your message about orienting your life around your values. I hired a coach a year ago and she helped me to get clear on my values. Building my business and life around those has increased my happiness and my income - a nice dividend. Realizing that others might be driven by different values also helps me to better understand my family, friends and colleagues and how best to interact with them. Thanks for sharing the concept and the tool!
Cheers,
~Lori
Dana D'Orsi
9:07 am on Saturday, June 9, 2012
Lori - I'm so happy to hear that you had such a great experience with coaching. Yes, it's so important to realize that everyone's values are so unique. Many of us get caught up in a trap of working towards others' visions of success -- without taking time to think deeply about what success means to us, personally. Congrats for taking charge of your destiny and building your business and life around what matters most to you!