Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Values: What are they?

Values are beliefs that people hold so strongly that it drives their behavior and dictates how they
make decisions.

Your personal value system gives you structure and purpose by helping you determine what is
meaningful and important to you.

They help you express who you are and what you stand for.

Your values define your character

Values, along with your definition of what that value means for you, will help lay the groundwork
of what makes you happy and what you are passionate about.
If you are unaware of, or become disconnected with your values, you end up making choices out of
impulse or instant gratification rather than on solid reasoning and responsible decision-making.
.
They impact every aspect of your life including personal and work behaviors, your interactions with
family, friends and co-workers; your decision-making processes and the direction you take in life.
This is why it is so important to know what you value and what is important to you.
There are no right or wrong values. They just are..
Your values won’t look like mine or anyone else’s and that’s perfectly ok. As a matter of fact, many people
try to emulate other people’s values and they can’t figure out why they aren’t happy. It’s because if your
values don’t belong to you, you can’t be truly happy.
Values are personal to each and every person and our list will differ for all of us.
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Circle 5 values from the list below or choose one of your own if you don’t see it listed.
Take your time to go through the list. Try each value on and see how it feels. Take it off and try another
on. What seems to fit you better?
Which values do you need in your life to feel happy and fulfilled?
LIST OF CORE VALUES
Abundance
Accomplishment
Acknowledgement
Adoration
Affection
Agility
Ambition
Appreciation
Assertiveness
Attractiveness
Awareness
Beauty
Benevolence
Bravery
Calmness
Cooperation
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Decorum
Dependability
Determination
Dexterity
Direction
Discovery
Dominance
Duty
Economy
Effectiveness
Elegance
Endurance
Entertainment
Excitement
Expediency
Exploration
Extroversion
Faith
Fascination
Ferocity
Financial
Acceptance
Accuracy
Activeness
Adroitness
Affluence
Alertness
Amusement
Approachability
Assurance
Audacity
Awe
Being the best
Bliss
Brilliance
Camaraderie
Cordiality
Courtesy
Credibility
Daring
Deference
Depth
Devotion
Dignity
Directness
Discretion
Dreaming
Dynamism
Ecstasy
Efficiency
Empathy
Energy
Enthusiasm
Exhilaration
Experience
Expressiveness
Exuberance
Fame
Fashion
Fidelity
independence
Accessibility
Achievement
Adaptability
Adventure
Aggressiveness
Altruism
Anticipation
Articulacy
Attentiveness
Availability
Balance
Belonging
Boldness
Buoyancy
Coolness
Correctness
Craftiness
Cunning
Decisiveness
Delight
Desire
Devoutness
Diligence
Discipline
Diversity
Drive
Eagerness
Education
Elation
Encouragement
Enjoyment
Excellence
Expectancy
Expertise
Extravagance
Fairness
Family
Fearlessness
Fierceness
Firmness
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Fitness
Fluency
Frankness
Frugality
Generosity
Grace
Growth
Harmony
Helpfulness
Honesty
Hospitality
Hygiene
Impartiality
Ingenuity
Inspiration
Intensity
Introversion
Inventiveness
Judiciousness
Kindness
Learning
Liveliness
Love
Making a difference
Meekness
Mindfulness
Mysteriousness
Obedience
Optimism
Originality
Passion
Perfection
Persistence
Piety
Pleasure
Popularity
Practicality
Preparedness
Proactivity
Prudence
Realism
Recognition
Reflection
Religiousness
Resolve
Rest
Richness
Sacrifice
Sanguinity
Flexibility
Focus
Freedom
Fun
Gentility
Gratitude
Guidance
Health
Heroism
Honor
Humility
Imagination
Independence
Inquisitiveness
Integrity
Intimacy
Intuition
Investing
Justice
Knowledge
Liberation
Logic
Loyalty
Mastery
Mellowness
Modesty
Neatness
Open-mindedness
Order
Outlandishness
Peace
Perkiness
Persuasiveness
Playfulness
Poise
Potency
Pragmatism
Presence
Professionalism
Punctuality
Reason
Recreation
Relaxation
Resilience
Resourcefulness
Restraint
Rigor
Sagacity
Satisfaction
Flow
Fortitude
Friendliness
Gallantry
Giving
Gregariousness
Happiness
Heart
Holiness
Hopefulness
Humor
Impact
Industry
Insightfulness
Intelligence
Intrepidness
Intuitiveness
Joy
Keenness
Leadership
Liberty
Longevity
Majesty
Maturity
Meticulousness
Motivation
Nerve
Openness
Organization
Outrageousness
Perceptiveness
Perseverance
Philanthropy
Pleasantness
Polish
Power
Precision
Privacy
Prosperity
Purity
Reasonableness
Refinement
Reliability
Resolution
Respect
Reverence
Sacredness
Saintliness
Security
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Self-control
Sensitivity
Service
Shrewdness
Silliness
Skillfulness
Soundness
Spirituality
Stability
Strength
Support
Sympathy
Temperance
Thoughtfulness
Timeliness
Transcendence
Truth
Uniqueness
Utility
Victory
Vision
Warmth
Willfulness
Wisdom
Youthfulness
Selflessness
Sensuality
Sexuality
Significance
Simplicity
Solidarity
Speed
Spontaneity
Stealth
Structure
Supremacy
Synergy
Thankfulness
Thrift
Traditionalism
Trust
Understanding
Unity
Valor
Vigor
Vitality
Watchfulness
Willingness
Wittiness
Zeal
Self-reliance
Serenity
Sharing
Silence
Sincerity
Solitude
Spirit
Spunk
Stillness
Success
Surprise
Teamwork
Thoroughness
Tidiness
Tranquility
Trustworthiness
Unflappability
Usefulness
Variety
Virtue
Vivacity
Wealth
Winning
Wonder
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Once you have your top 5 values list them below.
Don’t worry, you can choose another value at any point in this exercise if you change your mind about a
value.
Your 5 Values
1. ____________________________________
2.____________________________________
3.____________________________________
4._____________________________________
5._____________________________________
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Take each of your 5 values and put them through the model below.
Use a verb to describe your value. Start with the word “To”
Make sure you find 5 verbs to describe you values. After the 3rd verb you will start to stretch yourself
and see on a deeper level why it is an important value for you or why it may not be. Choose more
than 5 verbs if you can. The more verbs the clearer your picture of what that value looks like to you.
Example:
Value - Health
To cook with healthy oil and no Trans fat
To eat more fruit and vegetables and less sugar
To go to my yearly doctor’s appointments
To exercise regularly
To take supplements and vitamins
Who is involved in this value? My whole family, including the pets
What is the benefit if the whole family is health conscious? We will hopefully live longer and healthier
lives
Is this something you are willing to spend your time, money and energy on? Yes
So, now that I have a clear picture of the definition of health.
Now you try it with your values.
Value # 1 __________________________________
1. To (verb)
2. To (verb)
3. To (verb)
4. To (verb)
5. To (verb)
6. Who is involved in this Value? You, your family, work……
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
7. What is the benefit of this value?
8. Is this value something you are willing to spend your money, time and energy on?
Value # 2__________________________________
1. To (verb)
2. To (verb)
3. To (verb)
4. To (verb)
5. To (verb)
6. Who is involved in this Value? You, your family, work……
7. What is the benefit of this value?
8. Is this value something you are willing to spend your money, time and energy on?
Value # 3_________________________________
1. To (verb)
2. To (verb)
3. To (verb)
4. To (verb)
5. To (verb)
6. Who is involved in this Value? You, your family, work……
7. What is the benefit of this value?
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
8. Is this value something you are willing to spend your money, time and energy on?
Value # 4_______________________________
1. To (verb)
2. To (verb)
3. To (verb)
4. To (verb)
5. To (verb)
6. Who is involved in this Value? You, your family, work……
7. What is the benefit of this value?
8. Is this value something you are willing to spend your money, time and energy on?
Value # 5_______________________________
1. To (verb)
2. To (verb)
3. To (verb)
4. To (verb)
5. To (verb)
6. Who is involved in this Value? You, your family, work……
7. What is the benefit of this value?
8. Is this value something you are willing to spend your money, time and energy on?
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Having trouble choosing?
Often times your top value will be obvious to you. Other times you'll have it narrowed down to a few
choices but will still have a hard time figuring out which one is really the most important among those.
When that happens invent a scenario for each value, and then compare those scenarios.
For example, if you're trying to decide which is more important to you, connections or peace, then ask
yourself, "Which would I rather do – meet a friend or have some alone time?" This example assumes
that meeting a friend would satisfy your value of connection and that staying home and having alone
time would satisfy your value of peace,
I usually find that when I create scenarios for the tough-to-prioritize values, the best ordering
becomes clear.
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Once you have your 5 values write each one in each piece of the pie. Each value should have its own
slice.
Then rate each value from a 1 ( least honored) – 10 (most honored) based on how much you are
currently honoring this value and draw a line in the pie of where that number falls. A 0 is right in the
middle and a 10 is the outside edge of the pie.
Example:
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Created by Karen Regan – Materials may not be shared without permission
Things to think about.
1. What do you need to start doing to honor your values?
2. What do you need to stop doing in order to meet your values?
3. What would your life look like if all of your values were honored consistently?
4. What support must you have in order to build your life around these values?
5. What belief do you need to start believing to get your values met?
6. What belief do you need to stop believing to get your values met?