This exercise is designed to help you to better understand your own personal goals and values, and to see how your life goals support or conflict with your values and personal experiences.
Procedure:
Rank order the values on the value survey below (16 long-range values)
Complete the life goal inventory. Reflect on and record your major goals for the next 1 to 2 years in each of the areas indicated.
Write a minimum 5½–6 page paper examining and comparing your life goals, your most important values, and your experiences.
Suggestions for writing the paper:
Write in the first, not the third, person. It may help to think of this as a letter to a very close friend, to you, or as diary entries.
Describe the origin of your goals and your personal history in a paragraph or two. What specific events in your life affected your goals and values?
Describe your 3 to 4 most important values.
Discuss briefly your 2 to 3 key goals in each of the 7 broad goal categories (use headings at the goal category level to separate the discussions). For each goal, explore its connection to each of your 3 to 4 most important values.
Compare your present life, activities, and job with your goals and values.
Is there any particular satisfaction in your life that might be explained by support from your goals and values?
Is there any particular frustration that might be explained by conflict among them?
Clarify the points you make with specific personal experiences and examples.
Do your values support your goals? Or do some conflict?
To what extent have your life experiences up to this time been guided or influenced by your goals and/or your values?
Your listing of your life goals and personal values is intended to help you with your analysis. They are merely an aid to help you write your paper. It is not necessary to turn in your personal values or life goal inventory. If you do, include as an appendix.
Write reflections honestly and straightforwardly. No one but the instructor will see your paper. It is confidential, and will be returned quickly.
Use clear language and good grammar. Choose directness and clarity over elaboration.
Criteria for evaluating the paper include the demonstration of your ability to analyze and articulate your own values, goals, and experiences:
Clarity of analysis of goals, values, and experiences.
Ability to recognize and deal with the meaning of support and conflict among goals, values, and experiences, and their significance for future career and life decisions.
Quality of your paper, including life experiences, correct writing, and examples.
Apologies for intruding into your personal values. However, experience indicates that most of us do not take time to reflect on our goals and values unless (1) we are asked to do so, or (2) a crisis arises in our lives. The exercise and paper will enable you to gain a better understanding of your goals before a crisis arises.
Life Goal Inventory
This inventory is designed to help you examine your life goals. Describe as fully as you can your aims and goals in all areas of your life. List all goals that are important to you whether they are fairly easy or difficult to attain. Be honest in this assessment; only then will the inventory be useful to you. For example, if your major goal is to enjoy leisure satisfactions, indicate this, so as to better understand and evaluate yourself. In your own words, describe 2 to 3 goals in each of the following 7 broad goal category areas of the next 1 to 2 years. The categories are a guide; feel free to change them to suit your own goals.
Career (goals for employment or career; situation aimed for).
1.
2.
3.
Relationships with People (goals with family, friends, colleagues, others).
1.
2.
3.
Status and Respect (goals in your social circles; people from whom you seek esteem).
1.
2.
3.
Leisure (vacations, sports, hobbies, other interests).
1.
2.
3.
Learning and Education (knowledge, skills, experiences to learn, areas to study).
1.
2.
3.
Spiritual Growth and/or Religion (goals: peace of mind, prayer, meaning, giving self to others).
1.
2.
3.
Material Rewards and Possessions (goals in income, wealth, possessions).
1.
2.
3.
Rank Ordering of Personal Values
Rank the following sixteen long-range personal values in order of importance to you, that is, insofar as they are guiding principles in your life. Study the list of values carefully. Place a 1 in front of the value that is most important in your life, a 2 in front of the next most important, and so on. The least important value for you should be ranked 16. If you change your mind, feel free to change the ranking. When you are finish, the list should roughly indicate the importance of the various values in your life.
When you are finished, the list should roughly indicate the importance of the various values in your life.
______ Achievement (promotions at work)
______ Beauty (natural and artistic beauty)
______ Cooperation
______ Dollar rewards (money and salary)
______ Family security (taking care of and being with family)
______ Freedom (independence)
______ Justice (equal opportunity for all; concern for the disadvantaged)
______ Love, friendship, and intimacy
______ Physical health and well-being
______ Pleasure (sensually and sexually enjoyable personal life)
______ Possessions (good car, clothes, home, many material goods)
______ Recognition (respect, admiration from others)
______ Self-respect (a good self-image, self-esteem)
______ Sense of accomplishment (making a lasting contribution)
______ Spirituality (prayer, meditation, striving to be a good person)
______ World at peace (lessening of war and conflict)
The Personal Goals and Values Inventory Assignment Outlined
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