It’s useful to learn how to be light and quick with values. In any moment, we can look at the context in which we find ourselves, consider what’s important to us, where we want to go in life or the next few minutes, and pick a valued direction to move in instead of falling back into old unhealthy habits and compulsions.
Really quick exercise here: Grab sticky notes or rip up pieces of paper.
We’ll pick four values right now. You’re not stuck with these. This isn’t a commitment of any kind. They don’t have to be “right”. We’ll continually refine them as we go through the course. So keep this light. You can even put down things that don’t feel like you at all. That’s totally ok. Be curious. Try things. It’s so useful to see what we choose without lots of overthinking.
If you’d like a prompt to help with coming up some values, try using these questions:
TURN VALUES INTO ACTIONS
I mentioned earlier that values are useful. The help guide our actions. Some of the values you’ve identified just now could be abstract concepts. Maybe you value “FAMILY” or “HONESTY”. The next step, a step that we can do every day or every moment with our values, is translate them into concrete actions.
Grab another four pieces of paper, and under each of the values you identified, write down one action you can do today that aligns with that value. If you said something like FAMILY, what’s the most impactful thing you’ll do today to support your family? Write that action down.
Keep these values with you as you head into the exercises ahead. You’ll add to them and refine them.