Exercise: Values Exploration

John Hain/Pixabay

Values Exploration Exercise

How would you define your personal values?

Before you answer this question, you need to know what, in general, values are.

Values are what drive your decisions and actions in life.  They are qualities that are considered worthwhile and represent your highest priorities.  Values are learned through your life experiences by witnessing, imitating, and accepting/rejecting.  Values are subjective and defined by one’s self.  Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live. This is why making a conscious effort to identify your values is so important. When you define your values, you discover what's truly important to you. A good way of starting to do this is to look back on your life – to identify when you felt really good, and really confident that you were making good choices.

This is an exercise in getting to know who you are. Putting some time and thought into what drives you is helpful in understanding different interactions you have and how you integrate with others. It is a discretionary tool and can be accomplished with or without the content below as long as you have three (3) identified personal values listed. 

---

Part One: List five values that you feel reflect who you are as a person. Provided below is a list of sample value words and phrases. As you look at them, notice and mark the ones that are most important to you, the ones you respond to and feel like you. If you don’t see a word or phrase that stands out to you, simply add to the list. Be sure NOT TO SELECT values only because they are socially acceptable or desirable. Listen to your intuition and your gut instinct as you identify your choices. After your initial review, revisit your choices and narrow them down to the five are most important to you.

Values

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

---

Part Two: Get specific about what your top values mean and how you will honor them in your life. What do your top three values look like when you have them in your world? How do you know if you have them? What steps could you take to honor them more? List the answers below.

Listed below is an example of one of my values (Positivity).

I Value: Positivity

This means I...........

A:   I strive to maintain a positive attitude at all times.

B:   I make an effort to see everything as half full.

C:   I strive to be enthusiastic in all aspects of life.

1.     I Value:

This means I...........

A:

B:

C:

2.     I Value:

This means I...........

A:

B:

C:

3.     I Value:

This means I...........

A:

B:

C:

---

Part Three: After everyone has had some time to reflect on their personal values, break into small groups to discuss them (It helps to have a large flipchart to capture discussion notes). The discussion should be geared towards why the values they selected are important to them.

Once the smaller groups have identified a set of values that are important to them, convene as a larger group to discuss them. Each group can present why they choose their specific values and what they mean to them.

As a crew/module, you can identify additional values you want to incorporate into the current fire season. This allows modules to add onto the current core values of Duty, Respect, and Integrity. It provides a unique buy in from all members of the team as they helped identify what is important to them.

Accountability Accuracy Achievement Adventurousness Altruism Ambition Assertiveness Balance Being the best Belonging Boldness Calmness Carefulness Challenge Cheerfulness Clear-mindedness Commitment Community Compassion Competitiveness Consistency Contentment Continuous Improvement Contribution Control Cooperation Correctness Courtesy Creativity Curiosity Decisiveness Dependability

Excellence Excitement Expertise Exploration Expressiveness Fairness Faith Family Fidelity Fitness Fluency Focus Freedom Fun Generosity Goodness Grace Growth Happiness Hard Work Health Helping Society Holiness Honesty Honor Humility Independence Ingenuity Inner Harmony Inquisitiveness Insightfulness Intelligence Intellectual Status Intuition

Perfection Piety Positivity Practicality Preparedness Professionalism Prudence Quality-orientation Reliability Resourcefulness Restraint Results-oriented Rigor Security Self-actualization Self-control Selflessness Self-reliance Sensitivity Serenity Service Shrewdness Simplicity Soundness Speed Spontaneity Stability Strategic Strength Structure Success Support Teamwork Temperance

Devoutness Diligence Discipline Discretion Diversity Dynamism Economy Effectiveness Efficiency Elegance Empathy Enjoyment Enthusiasm Equality Justice Leadership Legacy Love Loyalty Making a difference Mastery Merit Obedience Openness Order Originality Thoroughness Thoughtfulness Timeliness Tolerance Traditionalism Trustworthiness

---

Thanks to Andrew Addey and the Sawtooth Interagency Hand Crew for sharing this exercise with the wildland fire community.