If you ever feel like your life isn’t going in the direction you want it to, or you feel like you’ve veered off course, I recommend to you The Live Your Values Deck.

I learned about it from a friend who had her whole family go through the exercise of evaluating what their values were and what drives their choices and decision making. It seemed like a worthwhile pursuit, so we got our own deck.

The deck has 78 different cards with qualities on them like Honesty and Responsibility and Adventure and Romance. You’re supposed to organize them into three piles: those that matter the most to you, those that matter some to you, and those that don’t matter to you. Then, for those that matter the most, you’re supposed to pick the top ten and rank them, most important to least important.

As is my norm, I couldn’t stick to the rules because they didn’t match how I think and how I organize things. I couldn’t possibly rank my top values with some more important than others. Plus, I ended up with far too few in the “don’t matter” pile and far too many in the “matter the most” pile. So I made up my own rules for how to use the cards.

Of the cards that mattered the most to me (20something cards), I organized them into four categories: Brings Me Joy, Brings Me Peace, Important for My Sense of Self, and Provides Foundation and Connection. This worked well for me, because at any given time, I’m usually doing okay in at least half of those categories, but need a reminder of my values in the other(s). That way, I can just focus on the few that are in the category I need help with.

I highly recommend to anyone examining their life to try out The Live Your Values Deck. It might help you make some life decisions, or bring clarity to a murky, stagnant existence.

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