Knowing who you are what you believe in and what you stand for as a person will greatly improve your chances of finding success happiness, and achieving what you want from your life. To determine your values you need to think about what is really important to you as a person, in all areas of you life. One of the most famous Americans of all time, Benjamin Franklin, set out how he intended to live his life at the age of 22. He came up with the following 13 categories - temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity and humility. He wrote a sentence or more about each of these topics and resolved to live his life in accordance with these values. I'm not suggesting anyone should try to follow in Franklin's footsteps. I'm not even sure if there are any people out there who could even go anywhere close to aspiring to live by such a comprehensive and admirable set of values. It doesn't sound like much fun either! Everyone is unique and only you can decide what is most important to you. There are, however, some areas that many people may find of use as a general framework: Relationships with family, friends and other people; work/career and overall occupational satisfaction; personal integrity, self respect, inner harmony, spirituality; quality of life, happiness, pleasure, fulfilment; financial security and money matters; health and fitness. This is by no means an exhaustive list. You'll probably find other subjects important to you that you'll also want to consider. Nor will everything mentioned here will be of the same degree of importance to everyone, but if you spend some time considering your thoughts on these areas a starting point, this should help to get you looking and thinking in the right direction and give some indication of your values. Another exercise that can help is to honestly think about how people who know you, if asked, would describe you to other people. Are you happy with these descriptions? Does this fit in with your image of yourself and how you would like others to see you? What traits would you most like be known and remembered for? If you are serious about creating your ideal future, clarifying your values will be one of the most important exercises you will ever undertake. If you never really think about your values, you may have difficulty achieving your goals, as they could unknowingly conflict with values. If you're not altogether happy with what you discover, the good news is that you can change anything about yourself - if it's important enough to you, and you are prepared to make the commitment and put in the necessary effort. Without being fully aware of your values you may What you have been in the past and where you're coming from doesn't really matter. It's where you're going that's important, and self awareness and determining what really matters to you most will make creating you ideal future much easier. "It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are." - Anonymous
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