Trash Your Values Donald tucker

Values

Values are ideals in your life that you hold onto closely as you go throughout life.

Everybody has a different set of values. What means a lot to you might not mean a lot to someone else.

My Values

The exercise

The trash your values exercise is designed so you can see what is most important to you.

The Categories:

  • 5 material items that I value the most
  • 6 people that are the most important to me
  • 6 personal qualities/ traits about myself
  • 6 memories I always want to have
  • 5 goals I want to accomplish

Lets start Trashing!

Round 1- Tear up any 5 values

Round 2- Tear up another 5 values

  • one must be a memory
  • one must be a material item

Round 3- Tear up 4 more values

  • one must be a goal
  • one must be a person

Breathe!!!!

At first throwing things away is easy, but as the material items start to go it gets a lot harder to pick which values to trash.

Round 4- tear up 4 more values

  • one must be a personal quality/trait
  • one must be a person

10 squares left... time to see whats REALLY important

Round 5- tear up 3 more squares

  • one must be a person

Round 6- tear up 3 more values

Round 7- tear up 2 more squares

Final Round- get rid of one of the two remaining squares

My final value

What does it all mean?

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing which types of values got discarded first and then also seeing which types were left at the end.

Top 10 Values

  • Mom-red
  • Henry- red
  • Dad- red
  • faith- yellow
  • leadership- yellow
  • making olympic trials- green
  • henry being born- green
  • best friends with my kids- orange
  • happy healthy family- orange
  • marry love of my life- orange

Top 10 Analysis

I think that having mostly red, green, and orange squares left means that I value relationships and goals more than material items and personal traits. By not putting much emphasis on personal attributes and items, I was able to hold things much more meaningful like memories and loved ones around much longer.

Top 5, Top 5, Top 5

Top 5

  • Mom- red
  • Henry- red
  • faith- yellow
  • happy healthy family- orange
  • marry love of my life- orange

Top 5 Analysis

My top 5 does not look too much different than my top 10. However, getting down to 5 was much harder than expected.

I look at these top 5 traits and see them all working together. I have my baby brother and my mom (red) to support me with my goals (orange) while I heavily rely on my faith (yellow.)

Final Value

You gotta have faith! The reason I kept this value around the longest is because it represents more than just myself. My faith is what gets me through the day. My faith is what I can rely on when I need something the most. I also find motivation through my faith in terms of trying to become the best possible version of myself.

One year ago?

A year ago I think I would have come up with a similar set of values. I am in relatively the same position as I was a year ago and my goals have not changed since then.

Five years from now?

Five years from now I see myself with a set of values derived from the set I have now. While my loved ones may stay the same, I will have new memories and goals that are inline with the stage of life I am in.

Goal Applying

How can we use this exercise as a learning opportunity for the future?

Goal 1 (longterm) - Marry the love of my life

I will be able to use the memories I have and the traits I posses to find the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

Having a strong faith and great relationships with your loved ones always puts you in a more comfortable position when having to make these life choices.

Goal 2 (long term) - Have a happy healthy family

While this goal may sound subjective at first, it really is not. Having a happy healthy family is a blessing. Some people are lucky others are not. It is up to us to make sure we actively strive for this goal.

Having such a strong relationship with my family is going to prepare this for me one day. The traits I developed along with the memories I made watching my parents awesome love has turned me into a lover not a fighter.

Goal 3 (long term) - Be best friends with my kids

I am probably the only person that put this down as one of my long-term goals. Thats ok. I know this is way down the road, but I still need to list it because it is so important to me.

Being best friends with my dad has been one of the best things to ever happen to be. Having a close relationship with him and the rest of my family has forged me into the person I am today.

Relying mostly on my memories I want to make my relationship with my kids as strong as the bond my father has with me and my siblings.

Goal 4 (short term) - Have a meaningful career

What does it mean to have a meaningful career? I think it means that you love what you do because it helps other people achieve goals, happiness, and solutions.

I classify this as short term because two years from now I will be in the work force. That is a lot sooner now than it was thirty years ago. In a world of internships and highly competitive job markets, getting ahead now means everything.

I will be able to use my personal traits along with my memories to decide which career path I want to eventually embark on.

Goal 5 (short term)- Get a high paying job

This is another goal that I am going to consider short term. Like I said above, getting ahead is everything and it is important to take advantage of opportunities.

I have been able to use the people in my life (red squares) along with my attributes (yellow squares) to secure great internships over the last two summers. Being able to work for a family friend's company allows me to come into to workforce with experience and practicality.

The end goal is taking over my fathers business. My dad has been very blessed and very successful throughout his life and pretty soon it will be my job to take the torch.

At first I thought "yes yes yes" I am going to be rich. And then I though "no Ill just end up being defined for what my dad has done." Now with a clear head I can say that I am comfortable stepping into my fathers shoes. I can take the company in new directions and to new places. All while being able to give my family the nicest life possible.

What did I learn?

This exercise was great because it made me feel good about myself. This game showed me a lot about the kind of person I am and what I hold closest to my heart. Being able to throw away the selfish things and hold onto the meaningful ones shows me that I am prepared to tackle all parts of my life, not just whats going on right now.

Credits:

Created with images by Pexels - "post it notes sticky notes note" • Hamed.Al-Raisi - "Faith" • hile - "Heart" • Cooperweb - "Money"

Made with Adobe Slate

Make your words and images move.

Get Slate

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.