Personal Values So you discovered your personal values by using the two methods or vision exercises, what next? Will knowing your personal values help you succeed? Nope. Knowing your personal values is a start, and the next thing you need is to define and clarify these values and develop these values. In this post, we will define the values by using values statements.


So What the Heck is Values Statement?

I am sure you have heard of vision statements and mission statement, but values statement? What is that? Out of 1000 people out there, only 50 people seriously think about planning for success, only some 10 people have heard about values statements and only 2-3 use it. If you are one of those 2-3 people who have used values statement, please tell us about it in the comments below.

Value statement is a line or short paragraph that defines what each value means and clarifies your personal values by providing it a strong and clear definition. This can be done by having a statement for each value or by having one paragraph that addresses all your personal values. Let’s look at an example.

Let’s assume one of the personal values your discovered is “Integrity”. A sample values statement might be

“I will embrace integrity by being honest and fair in my everyday life.”

How to Create a Values Statement

Now, let’s look at how should you go about constructing the values statement for your personal values. Creating your personal values statement is a systematic process. The steps for creating a values statement are:

  1. Understand – Understand the importance of personal values and how your personal values help you succeed.
  2. Discover – Once you understand the importance of personal values you should discover your core values.
  3. Rank – After discovering your set of personal values, measure how important each of these values are to you. Out of the set of discovered values, rank the personal values.
  4. Define – Now you have ranked these values, it is the time to define them. What does each value mean to you? How would you live by the value in your daily life?
  5. Choose – There are two basic formats for writing a values statement. The first and more commonly used format is to have an individual statement for each value. The second format is where a paragraph describes all the values. I prefer individual statement format, because it is more readable and easier to understand.
  6. Finalize – This is one step when you should review your values statement and refine it. Change the words or make the statement catchy by playing with words and grammar.
  7. Display – After you have finalized the format, the last step is to put it on a piece of paper display it at a place where it can be seen until you can remember everything on that paper.

Going that Extra Mile

Once you have a values statement and get more clarity about what your personal values are, chances are there will be some new personal values that you would like to incorporate in your daily life. For doing this it is important to develop these values so that you can adopt them and use them as your foundation for everything you do. The next post will discuss how to develop personal values and how to adopt them in your everyday life. Grab subscribe via RSS or subscribe via email and be the first ones to get the future posts from Chat at the Cooler. Photo by Jeremy Books

Further Reading –

  1. How to Discover Your Personal Values in Less Than 10 minutes
  2. 3 Ingredients of Success – Vision, Core Values and Mission Statement
  3. Discover Your Personal Values with Your Personal Vision
  4. Personal Vision is Useless Without a Good Ladder
  5. Create Your Personal Vision Series