Discovering your core values and writing out your personal vision.
This article about discovering your core values is the final article in a series on how to create a personal vision plan for your life. You’ve written down your goals and come up with a list of strengths and skills you need to work on. The next part of the process is to decide what your most important values are.
As with steps 1 and 2, this step is going to yield different answers for everyone. There are no wrong answers so don’t get anxious or worked up. All you’re going to do is decide what’s most important to YOU, not what is important to anyone else or that you think should be important.
Once more, you’ll need your pen and paper. Write “My Values” across the top. What’s the most important thing in the world to you? Your top priority, the thing you work so hard for, the one rule you always follow, the one guideline you use to define everything else in your life. For example, as a Christian, one of my priorities is to make sure all my decisions are aligned with the Word of God.
This task of discovering your core values may require some thought. The answer, when you come up with it, might be simple or it might be complex. It might be the Golden Rule. It could be taking care of your family or spending time with loved ones. Some write a single word, such as “love” or “caring.”
Again, there are no wrong answers. This is about you, no one else. Your answers are private and should reflect your innermost self, or your vision statement won’t be genuine. Being honest with yourself is the most important part of this process.
Once you have an answer, you’re going to write down your second and third most important values. These might take you a while as well. You might even discover you have two or three on the same level. That’s okay too.
Now write down any other values you hold in high importance. Don’t write down too many; you don’t want to dilute the issue. You’re going to want to include your top value in your vision statement. Depending on your personality, you might want to do your second and third most important and maybe a few others as well.
When you finish with this exercise of discovering your core values you’ll be ready to write down your vision statement.
Putting it All Together
You’re almost finished. You’ve reached the final and most difficult step -combining everything into a coherent statement. If you’ve done the first three steps thoughtfully and honestly, you should be able to come up with a moving and motivational personal vision statement for yourself.
Get out a new sheet of paper. Write down all the things you’ve already come up with that need to be included in your vision statement. That is, write down your most important goals, any strengths or skills you want to include, and your personal values. These together form the nexus of your vision statement.
You’ll create drafts of your vision statement by playing around with words. Start a sentence with any of the following phrases and write until you have incorporated everything you want to include. Your vision statement may be anywhere from one sentence to a short paragraph long.
Vision Statement Opening Words
“I am…”
“I want…”
“My purpose/mission/vision is…”
“My life will show…”
“To…”
“I will…”
“I won’t…”
Don’t just try one set of these opening words. Try several. Play around with them. Come up with four or five draft vision statements. Use active, first-person verbs in all of them. That means you should write as “I [verb]” as much as you can.
Take some time with this, at least as much as you spent combined on the first three steps. Make multiple drafts of vision statements that all start with the same opening words. Add things in and take out other things. Use synonyms and antonyms.
Try different lengths, sentence structures, pacing, and tones. Make drafts that sound as different as possible while still expressing the same core set of beliefs.
How will you know when you’re finished? If things go extraordinarily well or you’re a very talented wordsmith, you might be able to come up with the perfect vision statement just from these drafts. If not, keep working on it until you get tired of it or frustrated.
Set the task aside for a day or two, then come back and read your drafts again. Circle things that you truly like. Mark out things you don’t. The bits and pieces that you like are going to form the core of your final draft.
Here are the rest of the articles in this series:
Writing a Personal Vision Statement for Your Life
11 Examples of Personal Vision Statements
How to Write Your Own Personal Vision Statement
Step 2: What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses
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