Phase 1: Mind mapping / Open reflection on your experiences

• Mind Mapping Exercise 1

  • Mind map to the following questions: What are the moments and experiences in your life where you have been extremely happy and your fullest self? (e.g Fully connected to who you are and the moment. Felt most alive and engaged with the present moment.)

• Mind Mapping Exercise 2 (allow more time for this one and I encourage you to go as deep as you can)

  • Mind map to the following questions: What are the moments and experiences in your life where you have been extremely unhappy and not your fullest self? (e.g Not fully connected to who you are and the moment. Uncomfortable in your own skin.)

Note: Keep mind mapping on exercise 1 before moving on, if you feel you have more to reflect on.

Phase 2: Categorizing mind maps into ‘value’ words

• Once the mind maps are complete: Step back from the granular detail of the experiences themselves and look from a birds eye view for a moment to reflect. From what you see from this view, categorize / cluster together the experiences and moments you’ve reflected on into categories and define them with ‘Value’ words. (I like to use sticky notes for this process)

• Create as many categories as you need or that you can see arising from your experiences. Conduct this exercise for both mind maps.

• Once you have a list of categories, spend some time to reflect on them and how these categories align and show up in your day to day life and the environment you currently live in. No need to dwell here too long, yet take a moment to reflect.

Phase 3: Defining your five core values

• Now you likely have a list of categories or ‘value’ words coming from your mind maps. In this phase we’re going sit and refine the list of values down to your 5 core values.

• Time for the process of elimination: If you have 20, start with removing 10 from the list by comparing each against each other and seeing which one is more important to you. Then start again with the remaining 10 to cut down to your 5 most important values.

• Note: This exercise is not saying that the value words being removed are not apart of your life, they’re just not as important to you as the other ones.

Phase 4: Alignment of values with current living (optional, but highly valuable)

Reflection Questions:

• How do these values, experiences and moments align with who you are today?

• How you spend your time and where you want to be going?

• Does your current environment support / enable you to experience and live in alignment with your values?

• What surprised you in this exercise? What would you like to spend more time reflecting on and learning more about.

Phase 5: Integration into Daily Life (Using your core values as a decision matrix)

To integrate this new awareness of what it is you deeply care about into your current life, my invitation to you is to start using these 5 core values as a lens of which you make decisions, both large and small. My recommendation is to be playful with it initially and see what happens, see what you notice in your experience of the activities you say yes too.

Reflection Question: What does running a new opportunity through the core values decision matrix tool enable you to say yes to more often and/or more importantly which opportunities does it enable you to say no to more often?

Interested in chatting with me about this exercise and your core values? Or maybe something else in your life you’re looking to grow and expand into? Schedule a free consultation today.