Values Worksheet - A Companion to the 92,000 Hours Values Workshop
Your core values are the foundation of who you are as a person. They are your guiding principles, influencing the way you make decisions, build relationships, and relate to the world.
Understanding your values, and the way those values have been shaped throughout your life, is the key to tapping into your innermost potential.
Dive in with us to uncover your deepest values and live a life aligned with your true priorities.
Determining your core values: an exercise
Print these core values cards and cut them into individual cards. You can do this exercise virtually, and it will work, but there is something about taking the time to do this tangible process that puts you into a place to concentrate on this effort better.
Now, once you have a big pile of cards, it is time to get to work. Set a timer for 5 minutes and “sort” this stack of values. Put them into three piles:
Values that are very important to me
Values that are somewhat important to me
Values that are not important to me
You can use the blank cards to write in your own value if you don’t find the one you want listed.
But this is important: don’t overthink this. Stick with the 5 minute timer rule and work to get down to three piles.
Once you have those, stop, take a minute, and have a look. How did that feel? Did you learn anything about yourself from that sorting exercise? What can you tell about yourself by simply looking at the size of the different piles – from very important, to somewhat important, to not important? Which pile has the most cards? Why do you think that is? Did you find that there were words that you didn’t consider values in those stacks? Were there values that matter to you that were missing? If there were, use the blank cards that were provided to write down the values that you think should be on the list.
Second, take all the cards from the not important and somewhat important piles and set them aside. You’re not going to need these. Let’s focus on the “very important” pile. Set a time for 5 minutes again. Now use that limited time to narrow them down to 10.
Now take a look at your pile. These are your top 10 values! What do you learn about yourself from looking at these? But wait, we’re not done. Set the timer again. This time for 2 minutes. Now, narrow these top 5 values down to 3. This is usually the part where my workshop participants would groan. This is hard. But it’s worth doing. These are your top 5 values! Now, how do they differ from your top 10? How much harder was it to eliminate half of them to get them down to 5?
You now have the three core values that matter the most to you. Do they resonate? If you shared them with a loved one right now, would they nod their head and say yes – those absolutely make sense? You may have noticed that as you had to remove some of the values in order to prioritize others, you started to make choices about how you would define the three values that were left. You may have found some overlap or a way to include some value ideas in your definitions of other values. For example, you may have found yourself choosing between family and love, but in doing so you reasoned that you’d keep family, because love was embedded in your definition of family. Your own definitions of these top 3 values and your perspective on why they matter is important.
So now you should take the time to write down your own definition of each of your top 3 values. Think through these key questions related to your values:
What are core values? Why do they matter—to us personally and as an organization?
How can identifying our core values help us succeed (in life, in the workplace, in our families and organizations?)
What does it look like when you are living your core values? How can they guide what we do day-to-day?
Core values serve as our guides during times of conflict or confusion. They give us a direction and keep us on the path that’s right and authentic for us. They help us make decisions that honor what’s worthwhile to us and who we are as individuals. And, they give us a big-picture sense of purpose.
What are your core values? Did this exercise help you understand yourself better as an individual? Let us know on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.