I am beginning to believe that there is nowhere in our lives that doesn’t benefit from greater awareness. In short, the more present and conscious we are about the decisions we make, the more satisfied, fulfilled, and happy we feel. Our values are a foundational part of this equation. This article explores how values can be harnessed and the most incredible ways you can explore your values today, through journal ideas and more.

Want to see which values inform the choices Vibrant Systems makes? Check them out right here!

What Actually Are Values?

Like most of us, I wasn’t sat down by my parents and told how to explore my personal core values.

Instead, they modelled to me the values they cared about most–over time, I either adopted those values as my own, or rebelled against them. That’s life!

The unfortunate thing is that this isn’t how we end up living a life we consciously want to live. We either make choices based on what we are taught are the “right” choices, or we rebel our way into another kind of life that is equally unsatisfying, but our pride won’t let us choose differently. Unless we are lucky–and those lucky people do exist, and probably aren’t reading this article–this way of living often leads us down a path of numbness, dejection, and even apathy.

Why? Because we aren’t actually living life based on the things we care most about!

We aren’t living by our own values.

But what actually are values?

Values, in short, are our priorities. They are the things that matter most to us. They hold weight in our decision-making process.

They have value.

Regardless of how consciously we are making a choice, a value is involved. When I was choosing to rebel against what a “perfect life” seemed like, I was valuing autonomy, experience, and rebellion.

When I was making a choice to emulate my parents’ ideas of a good life, I was valuing their respect.

But just because values inform every single choice we make, it doesn’t mean that we are making those choices based on our most authentic core values. We aren’t taught how to see our core values transparently, and many voices tell us what we should value instead–our parents, our religions, our wider culture, media and advertisements, and so on.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

It was becoming more and more clear to me that whatever values I was using to guide my choices weren’t actually helping me live a life I was happy or proud to live. Something had to change. Luckily, there are many journal ideas available to us if we want to start exploring our values in greater depth.

How Journal Ideas Help Us Uncover Our Values

Maybe you already keep an active journal, or maybe it’s not your favourite form of self-reflection. Either way, I have found that keeping a journal is very helpful when uncovering both the values currently driving our lives and the values I wish I were practicing instead.

The journal ideas that I include here are the same ones I’ve explored in my process of learning what my own values actually are, and how I want to act on those values in my life. By taking the time to reflect and write down how I make decisions, I started to notice patterns in what drove my choices. Once I noticed a pattern, it was easier to start to change how I acted in that area of my life.

Take the time to explore my favourite journal ideas below, and write down the ones you’d like to take more time to reflect on later!

Journal Prompt #1: What makes my heart sing?

What makes my heart sing? What lights me up? What brings me the greatest joy and satisfaction? Where in my life do I feel fully alive?

These are all different journal ideas for exploring where in your life you are already living in values alignment. And your answers to these questions don’t need to be serious. Maybe you feel the most satisfied when you’re crocheting a stuffed bunny for your friend’s baby. Perhaps your heart feels open after talking to the mail clerk in the post office.

This journal idea is a small door to open, but it lets in more and more joy. When we know what already brings us into a state of flow, we can start to dive into what we value most about that activity. Is it the deeper sense of creativity? Connection? Friendliness?

When we uncover the values beneath that satisfaction, we can start to practice expanding those values into other areas of our lives as well!

Journal Prompt #2: Describe a decision you made. Why did you make that choice? What priorities did you use to help you decide?

We are making choices every single day. We choose what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, or how we handle inconveniences. As I said above, every single choice we make is driven by some sort of value.

These journal ideas are an invitation to explore the values currently driving the choices we make.

When we practice making these values explicit, we are then able to see whether or not that choice is satisfying.

For example, say someone cuts you off in traffic on your way to work. What did you do? Did you lay on your horn? Did you enter the office grouchy?

Why? What stories were you telling yourself about that interaction?

Most of all, are you happy about the choice you made and the person you were following that decision?

Journal ideas like this one are especially helpful when we are just beginning to explore our values, because if we have no idea what we actually care about, they show us the unconscious priorities in our lives. Whether we feel pleased or put off by these unconscious priorities can show us whether we need to shift towards actions more aligned with the values we wish we had.

Journal Prompt #3: At a dinner party or gathering, what kind of people do you gravitate towards? Who do you most admire?

Sometimes it’s difficult to turn the reflections onto ourselves right away. Journal ideas like this one can also be used to uncover our values by helping us clarify what we truly admire or enjoy about another person.

Do you admire those who are dressed fashionably? The friendly and charismatic ones? Or perhaps the host who cooked such a delicious meal?

As with most journal ideas, don’t be afraid to take it a step deeper.

If you admire someone’s cooking skills, what is it about their cooking you admire? Their creativity? The way it brings people together? The skills they’ve mastered through practice and learning?

Journal Prompt #4: If you could speak to one person from history, who would it be and why? What would you speak to them about?

Like the above reflection, this prompt allows you to distance yourself from your values and use other people as a mirror. Journal ideas that help us look into the mirror tend to reveal surprising things about ourselves.

In my experience, the things I am really excited to talk or learn about are a prime indicator of my values (and sometimes that value is very much just curiosity and learning). I tend to gravitate towards figures who persisted in difficult circumstances, who honed an impressive skill, or who practiced staying hopeful against the odds of their time. Each of these reflects the way I value persistence, learning, and hope (as well as creativity and optimism).

What does this prompt reveal for you? How can you start to incorporate more of these values into your daily routines?

Digging deeper: the Values Identification & Exploration Workbook

On my values exploration journey, I found that storytelling and narratives are an incredible way to reveal what we actually care about. That was the driving factor behind the creation of the Values Identification & Exploration Workbook.

This collection of journal ideas and prompts is an opportunity to illuminate your values–the ones currently driving your choices, the ones you wish you practiced more, AND the steps you can take to consciously choose the values you care about.

As I said above, there is nowhere in our lives that doesn’t benefit from greater awareness, and our choices are the place where we can apply this awareness in real and impactful ways.

So make your choices conscious and values-based.

Claim your Values Identification & Exploration Workbook right here!

Knowing What Our Values Are Is Just One Step

Journal ideas like the ones in this article are an incredible way to explore our values. They played an essential role in my journey (and will continue to do so). However, simply knowing what our values are on an intellectual level doesn’t always translate to embodying these values in real-time.

That’s because we are more than just our minds.

Whole self alignment means paying attention to each element that makes up who we are: our body, our emotions, our mind, and our spirit. When we develop awareness and presence in each of these areas, we can bring greater power to how we show up in wholeness.

We can consciously choose our values not just mentally, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually too.
If you’re looking for a pathway for exploring this whole self, then look no further than Elements of Self!

Elements of Self is also created directly from my lived experience. In fact, it was by incorporating these lessons that I was able to actually take the values I knew I cared about and make a life that was built on these values. This paradigm-shifting video course integrates the four elements as a way to understand these different parts of ourselves, so we can understand what balance looks like in our lives.

Are you interested in transforming your life? Then secure your space in Elements of Self today!