What are your personal goals and values?

• What do you want to do with your life? What are your aspirations?
• Here are some examples, but you could well have some different goals or values:

• Not clear about your values? Try rank ordering them and see what that tells you.
• No particular career or personal goals?
• It's OK to be an opportunist if you push yourself to diversify by doing different things.
• A drifter is someone who just gets through the day with no thought of where he or she is going and makes no attempt to avoid getting into ruts.
• We get embarrassed when asked about our goals and we have none.
• There is no need to feel this way.
• Try to strike a balance between having no direction at all and being perfectly clear.
• The easiest way to achieve this balance is to ensure that you are continually developing, learning new things and exposing yourself to new experiences.
• You might not have clear goals, but you have a process that keeps you growing.
• This section is about personal effectiveness. What does that mean to you?
• It usually means something along the lines of ensuring that you get the best possible return on your investment of time and energy.
• Your values might be such that this is just not important to you.
• If personal effectiveness is of value to you, it might help to think of yourself using investment terminology.
• To make the best use of all you have to offer, it is essential to formally allocate certain times of each year to stocktaking - a formal review of what you have accomplished, where you have failed, what you have learned and what you might do differently.
• This is a time to weigh up how your achievements of late measure up in relation to your goals and values. There is no right answer, only what matters to you.

All pages written by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D. and copyright © Self Renewal Group 1996-2010