“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.”
Roy E. Disney
Life isn’t black and white. We all experience unclear situations, people, and opportunities that represent many shades of gray. Do we take this opportunity? Does this friendship align with and represent (and perhaps one day define) who we are and what we believe?
In these moments, when you’re navigating the gray areas of life, our values come into play. Consider codifying and writing out your core values as deciding in advance what you will choose or how you will behave. Having your values outlined doesn’t mean that the decisions you face will be easy, but they will be easier.
So, here’s the challenge: Have you written down your values? How do you expect to stay anchored when the world gets messy if you haven’t?
If you are stuck and don’t know how to start, try this exercise:
- Open Word (or your writing app of choice) And ask yourself this question: What is Truly Important to Me?
- Write – bullet points, paragraphs, it doesn’t matter, get it out of your head.
- Open ChatGPT – Attach the document or paste what you have written. Before you hit ‘send,’ insert this prompt: “Based on the attached/above text, generate a list of my top 5 – 10 Core Values.”
What comes back won’t be perfect, but it will give you a place to start, and you can reflect and refine from here. Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part, so start. Making decisions easier in the future is worth the time invested now.
