Personal core values assessment

This article walks you through a personal core values assessment. Once you have completed this simple 3 step assessment, you will know your top five personal core values.

Determining what you value in life leads to your own version of personal success

Success is not success if it means nothing to you.

You can obtain college degrees, work hard and rise to the top in your organization, and have all the prestige and material wealth that comes with those things. But if your life path and career path are not in line with your core values, you might ‘look’ successful, but deep down you may actually be unhappy or even miserable.

Successful people take the time to reflect and ensure their core personal values are in alignment with their life pursuits.

Defining your core values will ensure the path you are on is the right path for you. The key to being successful is to define what success means to you.  One of the first steps in defining success is uncovering and assessing your personal core values. Personal values are what we care about most in life. They are represented by words that speak true to our hearts.

When we live true to our values, we will live extraordinary fulfilling lives. When we live true to our values we will live intentional lives.

How I aligned my life to match my personal values

A little over 10 years ago, I joined a women’s group that helped changed the direction of my life. That’s because one of the activities we did was to do a personal core values assessment. The leader of my women’s group facilitated and coached us through identifying our top values and most important areas of our life. Out of that exercise, I got in touch with my personal values and began to intentionally align my life more in line with those values. It helped me create personal goals related to these values, and actions plans for moving my life in a more fulfilling direction.

Recently, I did this exercise again. I compiled a list of personal values. Then I took the steps that I’ve outlined for you below and came up with my top 5 personal values.

My list of top 5 personal values:

• Quality relationships
• Financial security
• Health
• Helping others
• Freedom

Even though this list has changed slightly from 10 years ago, I know that these have been my core values for many years. I feel blessed that I have been able to be in tune with these core values and to plan for my current life. Seven years ago, I created a plan to create a life of freedom. For me a life of freedom represents freedom from the constraints of a 9-5 job and the freedom to have more time to focus on my other four values: spending more time with friends and family, having more time to focus on healthy eating and exercise, and the freedom to work on my passion projects that includes helping other people.

Three steps for determining your top five personal core values

Determining your top 5 personal core values is simple. You just need to take an hour or two of personal time. Make sure you are in a place free from any distractions. Go to your favorite park or coffee shop, grab a coffee and your notebook, and turn your phone on silent.

Step 1:  Go to my List of Personal Values page on my website. I recommend printing the pdf version and circling those values that speak to you the most. Or you can use your notebook to write down these values. During this step, just circle or write down those values that really grab you and feel right to you.

Step 2: Of the values you identified in Step 1, narrow these down to 10.  In some cases, values are closely aligned. For example, if you chose Helping others and Making a difference, choose which one speaks to you the most. If after eliminating the values that are similar, you still have more than 10, review the values again and choose which ones are more important than the others.

Step 3: From the 10 values, narrow down to just five core values. Pick the five values that are the most important to you. If you have trouble narrowing the list down, try comparing two values and asking yourself which one is more important than the other. Pick the values that really speak to your heart and that you could just not do without. Write these five core values in your notebook.

It is important to choose only 5 core values. The other values are still your values, but knowing your 5 core values will help you understand and prioritize what is most important.

Next steps

One of the key foundations for living an intentional life is to create a personal strategic plan. You have now completed the first step to creating your personal strategic plan, which is to identify your top 5 core personal values. The next step is to read my article: How to create your personal strategic plan and align your actions toward what is most important to you. This article will teach you more about how to align your actions with your values and what’s really important to you.

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