WORKLIFEDESIGN

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” Roy Disney

In order to go into the world and live a life you love, you need to know a little bit about yourself. You need to know what’s important to you, what your values are, and how they can guide all the decisions – big and little – you make in your life.

Being aware of your values not only helps you with decisions but also gives you direction. You are able to ask yourself at any time, “Is doing this helping me create a life I love, or is it hindering me?” You begin to live with intention, rather than adrift in the drama of your own and other people’s lives. Your purpose becomes clear.

Getting in touch with your values also helps you reconnect with and understand your passion for life.

A passion for animal rescue may reflect how important the treatment of all living creatures is for you.

A passion for the provision of services for immigrants may reflect how important social justice is for you.

A passion for, um, disco music may reflect how important feeling joy may be for you.

There are all sorts of ways to get clear on your values. You can look at moments in your life when you’ve had heightened emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc) and draw out the value that was being honoured or in conflict in those situations.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found is by doing a Values Sort. It took me 20 years to find a really good list of values but I finally came across the list used in research by Miller, C’DeBaca, Matthews and Wilbourne which captures the core values quite well. (As well as having scope to ‘add your own values’)

To help you get clear on what’s important to you, I’ve developed the handy Sorting Out Your Values exercise.

Download Sorting Out Your Values

This week I’m sharing one of my personal worksheets. This is what I use to stay focused and to minimise those 3.00am eyes-bolt-open, oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing moments.

Over the years I’ve found people who are very clear about what they are doing (ie their vision) have some sort of physical, visual reminder that they see daily.

Some people have Vision Boards.

Others have Treasure Maps.

I have my Ducks.

Or more specifically, my Ducks In a Row.

My Ducks came out of having a moment of terror where I thought I’d made a terrible life choice. Then the phrase, “No, it’s okay, I have my ducks in a row” came into my head and I felt much calmer, focused and okay with my situation. In fact, when I considered my “ducks” (ie all the things I had setup and were going to generate lots of love and income over the next 12 months) then things actually looked pretty good.

So I decided that I had to get my Ducks out of my head and onto paper. And the Ducks In a Row Worksheet was born.

As you can see, it brings together my priority projects – with the values, strengths, passion, vision, goals and next action steps – onto one page in an easy reference style. I have a copy at my desk. I have a copy in my Dump Book.

It’s a working document which means it changes weekly as I get new information, move to the next stage of a project, or decide to back/front burner projects.

You obviously need to do a little bit of work to complete it. It’s probably a two-coffee activity. I’ve included the Master Lists as a second page where you can brainstorm/list your values, strengths, passions, and crazy dreams. (And then you draw on these Master Lists to complete the Ducks).

So, there are no excuses for flapping about in a tizz. Get quacking!

DOWNLOAD The Ducks In a Row Worksheet

(BTW the cute little ducks come from freerangeduck.org)

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