Finding Your Purpose – Values

Do you know your values?  I’m not talking about how much your wardrobe and cosmetic case cost you but the fundamental reasons behind your actions.

Last year a coach carried out a values elicitation exercise on me.  It was an extremely useful 10 minutes that really opened my eyes.  Smart ass here always thought that that financial independence was my main driver and that would be the results of the exercise, wrong!!  Turns out my top three values were energy, balance and freedom.  Financial independence was there but way down my list.  That kind of explained why in my previous life as a sales consultant I was never truly settled.  The hours zapped my energy, I never really had the freedom to work exactly as I pleased and the hours I slogged away between sun rise and sun set did diddly squat for my work-life balance. 

The reason it’s important to explore your values when finding your true purpose in life is that it’ll keep you on track with your true self when deciding what path to take.  Take a look at yourself now for a moment; does your life plan not get you excited? Are you feeling dissatisfaction but not sure why because it all seems to be going well?  Are you procrastinating?  It could well be that your values aren’t matching your actions and if your actions aren’t driven by your values it’s easy to slip into inertia. 

When thinking about your purpose in life one of the first things you should do is consider your values.  Think about what it is you want out of life?  Quite often something tangible will come to mind first, something along the lines of ‘I want to be rich’.  Ask yourself the following questions, ‘What does being rich mean to me?’ And then, ‘What does that bring to me?’  Keep asking these questions until you get to the real answer.  The real answer won’t be a tangible thing you can touch or buy in the shops such as a boat or swimming pool but a feeling that is a real motivator.  It might help if you do this soul searching with a qualified coach who is trained in the art of reading clients and knowing when they are unknowingly kidding themselves.   

(Cavendish Films are releasing a DVD later this year entitled ‘Finding Your Values’ and it’ll be jam packed with ideas about your values and tips on how to find out what they are.)