Part 2: Clarify & reconcile your Values list

Next – go through the full list you generated and keep only the absolute deal-breakers. The values that have a tug on your heart. Like – you can’t be without those values: you just wouldn’t be your best-most-true-to-yourself self. 

Beware of listing values imprinted on you by your parents, or your social and physical contexts. REALLY self-check: are these things YOU hold dear NOW? (the NOW is specifically important: these are not your core values forever. They’re the ones that are important for you at this moment). 

Because one of the few certainties in life is that things will change. Your values should too as your needs change. Let them support and enhance you by remaining aware of what they are at each step, and have the courage and awareness to change them as you need to.

Last thing: by staying aware of the values that define your reality, you can discard the ones you didn’t intentionally pick up, along with the ones that no longer support you.

Ruthlessly rewire what doesn’t need to be there.

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Now – reconcile the values that seem like they hold the same/similar meaning. Like “love” and “being kind to living things” can be one and the same (in what it means to you). You can reconcile both into “love”.

Or “trusting in yourself” and “trusting in a higher Being” – that can be interchangeable depending on the context – you could reconcile it as “trust”.

When you’re done reconciling – re-write your clean list on a new sheet of paper.

STEP 3:

Finally – re-list all values in order of importance – most important first.

Your actions summarised:

Take your extensive list from the previous page:

• keep only the “deal-breakers” for you at this moment in your life & delete what doesn’t need to be there;
• see if any of them are the same thing & reconcile them into one term that encompasses the meanings;
• re-write the values you’re left with on a fresh page.
• re-list them in order of importance – most important first;

When you’re happy with your list – click to Part 3