Values Assessment:

Family, health, loyalty, friendship, service, independence, enjoyment, integrity, community, personal development, personal achievement, leadership, creativity, security, wisdom, wealth, expertness, power, location, and prestige.

After completing the values assessment, my top five values are: family, health, friendship, loyalty, and service.  When I think about what is important to me and why I chose these five values, the influence of my family is significant.  My family is the most significant part of my life and as such I place the highest value on them.  In fact, after family the other values can be attributed to what I experienced as priorities growing up.  In addition to placing a high value of physical and mental health, I was raised to cherish friendship and loyalty as well as service to others.

And, while these are the values that rise to the top, there are times when I feel in conflict with these values.  For example, I often find myself sacrificing my own happiness for others.  This is something that I am paying attention to and working on this year.

When I look back over the weekend (rather than just one day) the dominant values were not particularly aligned with my top five. Yes, I was in touch with my family but I also focused on independence, enjoyment, creativity, and wisdom.  They are very different than my top five and yet very real.  In an effort to pay more attention to my own wishes, I spent a good part of the weekend doing things I wanted to do and not what was expected of me by others.  And in going my own way, I enjoyed myself more.  I also worked on a project for a class that called on my creative side.  I enjoy school and my classes much more when I am able to be creative and complete assignments that use more of my artistic side.  Lastly, I did respond to a friend who had a bit of a crisis so my value of service was evident.  But, I can also say that I offered some words of wisdom to her as she worked through her problems.