How To Create A Values Based Personal Development Plan

‘Living your values’ is about defining what’s important to you and focusing on those things. When you live your values, you have meaning and purpose. It's an empowering state of being. The process will highlight whether or not you're taking action and building your personal and professional life around your values, and whether or not you have conflict with them. The goal is to ensure you live in line with your values in a meaningful way.

Step 1: Complete the values card sort

Print out the Values Card Sort document and cut out the five grey value heading cards. Place them side by side from one to five as follows:

1. ‘Never valued’
2. ‘Seldom value,
3. ‘Sometimes valued’
4. ‘Often valued’
5. ‘Always valued’

Next, cut out the white value definition cards. These include values such as: Independence, Friendships, Status, Stability, Competition, Creativity, Change and so on.

Now, ask yourself what values are significant to you?

Answer by placing each value definition card under the heading that applies to you. This will help you define which values engage you and make meaning for you. There are blank cards in case you want to include a value that we haven’t. At the end of this exercise you might shuffle them around, but try not to have more than seven cards under ‘Always valued’.

Take a photo of how things look at this point in time. This exercise alone is powerful because it allows you to reflect and ask yourself, ‘In my work life, where am I living my values? How many of my ‘Always valued’ values am I actually living?’

Step 2: Evaluating your values

This is a four-stage process.

Stage one: Determine which values you are fulfilling right now

Can you articulate the behaviours and practices that clearly reflect the ‘Always Valued’ values? For example, if one of your top values is ‘Physical challenge’, ask yourself if every day you do something that requires bodily strength or physical prowess. Try creating a story that demonstrates this value, how it makes you feel, and the impact this has on others.

Stage two: Determine which values you are only partially fulfilling

For example, if one of your values is ‘integrity’ but last week you didn’t complete something you said you would, then you’re only partially fulfilling this value. List these values and write what the benefit would be of fully engaging this value in your life. It might be that you’d get a sense of pride and achievement. Or that people would be able to rely on you; that you’d be a better people leader, or a better parent.

Ask yourself what the next logical step would be if you were to incorporate this value fully in your life, at home and at work. For example, if one of your top values is ‘knowledge’, fully engaging would be reading consistently, every day. If you weren’t fully engaging in this value, the next most logical step might be to set up your physical environment, i.e. put the books you intend to read next to your bed.

Stage three: Determine which values are important to you that you are not fulfilling

Be as truthful as you can and ask yourself, ‘What’s stopped me from making this value a priority in my life?’ Follow this with the question, ‘Where do I see this value reflected in others? What can I learn from them?’

Perhaps you have colleagues who are fully engaged in their pursuit of knowledge. The more you focus on these practices and the more examples you solicit, the more you can see connections and ways you can introduce that value into your life. In the case of knowledge, perhaps others have e-books or audiobooks on their phone which makes it easier for them to fully engage.

Stage four: Determine which values you are violating

For example, ‘Friendships’ might be an important value to you, but you’re not developing close relationships with people. Perhaps it’s because you’ve got your head down during a busy period. The thing is, there will always be busy periods. The impact may be that you feel isolated; that you’re not collaborating or sharing information with others which could impact work quality and timeliness. Ask yourself what you’re able to do about it.

Step 3: Clarifying your purpose and what’s important

What are the three most important life lessons you have learnt so far? In considering this question, we came up with the importance of kindness; of feeling good; of not judging others; of service to self and others. What about you?

Step 4: The impact you want to have on others

It's important not only to understand yourself and what motivates you, but also the impact you have on others. We are relational beings, and what we do has an impact on others, whether we intend it to or not.

Start by clarifying what that vision is by asking yourself ‘What do I want to be known for?’ In Stephen Covey's book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (link below), there’s a task where you pretend you're at your own funeral and you imagine what people are saying about you. For example, as a leader, you might want to be known as a someone who listens intently and acts strategically. Or perhaps you want to be known as someone who always adds value, who is very collaborative, or who produces high quality work.

Step 5: Create a vision statement for yourself

Once you’ve completed the reflection activities, start developing a vision statement that reflects your activities and your deepest values. Make it practical and inspiring.