Values Exercise

I have never given a lot of thought to why October, my favorite and most hopeful month of the year, is when I review the year and organize and plan for the next year. Some might say it’s a numerological phenomenon, because October is a “1” month signifying beginnings.

I’ve also never thought a lot about why some plans fail and others succeed or change into new plans.

So, I’ve been encouraged to do a Values Exercise. I’ve read about and tried this before, but I never fully understood it until I found a Website called The Personal Growth Center last week:

The best definition for values I could find is here at stevepavlina.com. Steve defines values as priorities that tell you how to spend your time, right here, right now.

The Personal Growth Center has a list of common personal values that was manageable for me.

I found the Self-Analysis exercise (at the very bottom of the page) clear and enlightening:

1. Select any values from the list that resonate.
   
2. List five of those selected that have helped shape your life and bring you to where you are today.
   
3. List two new values that you would like to implement in your life.
   
4. Create a detailed action plan for each of your seven values.
   

What used to be a seemingly random to-do list for the upcoming year is now a plan of specific action tailored only to what’s important to my innate values.

Ah, meaning and happiness (which, ironically, aren't in my list of seven, but can't be anything but inevitable).