This document discusses the importance of knowing one's values in order to be the person you want to be. It provides exercises to help identify an individual's top values by imagining one's funeral and what would be said about their character. Key words from these imagined speeches can reveal core values like love, freedom and security. The document advises ranking values by importance and reflecting on what each value means in order to guide decision making and ensure one's actions align with who they aim to be.

1. Be the person you want to be

2. What is more important:
character or reputation?
Character is WHAT YOU ARE
Reputation is what people THINK you are

3. Ever wondered why some people are
great people?
Ever had a problem and not known which
way to turn?
Ever wished that there was an easier way
to make tough decisions?
There is a way…….
KNOW YOUR VALUES

4. Which people in life are the most
respected people?
Those that live to their values e.g
Martin Luther King

5. VALUES guide your decisions
and act as your PERSONAL COMPASS
They will help you when you are at a
‘cross-roads’, or lost in an ‘emotional
desert’
By knowing your own personal values
decisions become simple

6. The only way to feel happy and
fulfilled is to live in line with your
values

7. What are Values?
Many of us think that we know our
values…..but do we?
We value our family, friends, money,
but this is not a value….
A value is something that our family and
friends give us e.g love, security
You can’t touch a value!

8. So what are your Values?
Try these exercises. It will take 15
minutes of quiet thinking time.
Part I: (from Stephen Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
Imagine you attend a funeral of someone who is very special to you.
You sit at the back of the funeral. It is busy. This person was obviously
deeply loved. You realise that you are the person who has died.
Three people stand up and say what sort of a person you were to them. One
of them is a family member (partner, son/daughter, parent), one is your bes
friend, one is a work colleague.
Write down what would you like them to say about you. What you stood for
your character, who you were as a person

9. Part II: Pull out the key words from the speeches that describe you:
e.g love, freedom, security, passionate, ambitious, trust, adventure, health
happiness, competitive, forgiveness, …...
These are your values….they describe the person
you want to be. To be the person we want to
be…….we need to behave like this person now
Part III: Write down your top 10
Part IV: Now put them in order of importance

10. GREAT! You now know what guides you when
you make decisions. !
For example: Someone who has freedom and adventure above
security is likely to take more risks than someone who places
great value on security
What if you don’t like the order of your values?
CHANGE THE ORDER!
Now that you know them, you decide what is
important.

11. So what next?
You now what your values are, and which are the
most important.
But do you know what they mean?
For example: What does honesty mean?
Does it mean never telling a lie? In that case are you aligned with
your values when you tell your child that Father Xmas is real?
Part V: Take your top 5 values and give them some
meaning:
E.g ‘Trust’ means that I do what I say I will do
‘Freedom means that I make choices based on what I
want

12. You now have a set of 5 personal values, and you
have some guidance as to when (and when you
are not) living them
You can do the same exercise with a partner or team
to identify what values your relationship is built upon
If Values are the cornerstones of great people, they
must also be the cornerstones of great relationships
and teams

13. Thank you for taking time to complete the exercises
Enjoy being the person you want to
be!