Core Values

In front of me, just the other side of my iPad and covered a little by my lunch box is a paper, a grid of words, with some of the words highlights. Others have a star by them. People walk into my office, but don't glance more than once at this. They don't know what this is, I imagine if they did, they would spend a little more time looking at it.

This grid is a modified version of one I found on-line. A grid I looked up when I became aware of how much time was being spent on unimportant things. I don't mean unimportant to me, I mean unimportant even to the person doing them. Think about thus, many people carve out time for things they don't really believe are valuable, they don't even think it adds value to them, because either they always have or they have let life happen or some other non-reason. Then, a aware, they keep doing them. Why? People haven't connected their activities to their core values.

I know what a couple of you might be thinking, Core values? isn't that sort of psychobabble? It can be, certainly, but you all have core values, those things that you determine your worth by. Faith or family, money or honesty, teamwork or wisdom. These concepts get a value and drives, should drive us, to greater things. Even those generally aware of their core values, can be helped by doing a serious evaluation of them. This grid is a tool to do just that.

It has 172 broad terms for things people commonly identify as core values. Too many to prioritize thoroughly, so when I do it, I start by highlighting in green those items which I thing are my core values. I select 19 of them, most of them not a surprise, sincerity, accomplishment and loyalty are a few. From there I review these 19 and limit it down to a top five or six. Accountability, Faith, Family, Honesty and Satisfying Others.

I use this tool with James, one of my accountability partners, show him my results and we talk about the things I am doing. He asks where I am doing well and where I have dropped the ball, or could use improvement. It becomes a medium for serious evaluation.

When I used this with Reuben, who I walk with, he committed to becoming consistent with his Bible study. When I went through this with Steve, another accountability partner, he got back to running and introduced a weekly bible study to his home, After my review with James, I have started introducing prayer time for Shelly and I, so we can pray as a couple before God.