Values Clarification - Finding Your BEST You!
Posted on September 13, 2018 by Alan Klugman, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Our values help define who we are and what motivates us to pursue our dreams and goals.
VALUES CLARIFICATION – FINDING YOUR BEST YOU
Alan Klugman, Transition Life Coach – CPC, ELI Master Practitioner
www.alanklugmancoach.com
We are the product of many things, some we have no control over and others we certainly do. We have no control over the family we are born into or the DNA we inherit. Our son learned this the hard way at age 14. He insisted then that we take him to the doctor so he could receive growth hormone injections and do something about his short stature. At that age he was desperate to reach at least 5”10’. The doctor looked at me and then at him asking, “Is your mother a giant?” Totally deflated, our son answered that my wife at 5”4’, was even shorter than I am. The doctor then explained to my son that he was predisposed to be shorter in stature, that growth hormone injections were appropriate for those youth who genetically are truly “abnormally short”. Today our son is a successful attorney, happily married to his high school sweetheart with two children he adores. He learned at that young age to use his energy where he can have an impact.
What about those things we do have control over? We certainly have control over how we live with and work through stress. We also have control over how much energy we bring to our daily lives and how positive it is. One thing in our lives that we have control over but do not think enough about, is our values – our principles or standards of behavior, our judgement as to what is important in life. Our values are one of the lenses through which we see the world so before we can plan how best to pursue a given goal in life, we MUST ascertain for ourselves what are the principles that we live by – why they are important to us and what can cause us to change how we feel about certain values. By clarifying our values, we not only reflect on what is important to us, we also create a hierarchy to live by.
In 1978, Alan L. Lockwood (SAGE Journals) first reviewed the effects of values clarification on the moral development of school aged youth . He found that young people were very positively affected by values education. More recently in 2003, Jacqueline Mosconi and Judith Emmett (Professional School Counseling) carried out extensive research on the effects of values clarification on High School students’ definitions of success. Again there was a positive correlation between values clarification and perceived success in achieving goals.
In my own coaching practice, I find that when clients agree to begin their professional relationship with me with a values clarification exercise, they learn a great deal about what makes them “tick”, so to speak – about what matters to them not only in terms of work but work/life balance. Having completed the exercise, they are far more motivated to work on achieving their stated goals or dreams. They have a context for the importance of their decisions and actions moving forward.
