This year, we are celebrating 20 years of working full-time in the values field and with the AVI (A Values Inventory). To mark this occasion we are offering you a chance to explore your values via the AVI and to set Values-Based New Year Resolutions (Meaningful Objectives) for 2008.
A special AVI Report, Setting Meaningful Objectives (SMO), has been developed specifically to help you set Meaningful Objectives based on your responses to the AVI. It is available until 20 January 2008 at the introductory price of $AUD 15.00, thereafter the price is $AUD 35.00.
To access the SMO, please follow the instructions at: http://www.minessence.net/AValuesInventory/AboutTheAVI.aspx
Below is an extract from the introductory page of the new Setting Meaningful Objectives AVI:
When I’ve observed clients who are extremely productive, I’ve found that simply completing a list of actions isn’t enough for them. What’s important is that their actions are linked and driven by their Meaningful Objectives. These clients rarely do anything that doesn’t relate to one of their objectives.
Meaningful Objectives are your North Star, your guiding light, and your reference point for success or failure. Without meaning, objectives become dry and nothing more than text on a to-do list that you might (or might not) look at every now and again…
You’d be amazed at how many people I’ve coached, at every organizational level, who don’t have Meaningful Objectives. Even if they do, their objectives are often unclear. Identifying objectives that are meaningful, and clarifying them so that they are specific, is a crucial step in helping you manage your life. As Lily Tomlin once said, 'I’ve always wanted to be somebody. I guess I should’ve been more specific!' [Sally McGhee]
Before you can set Meaningful Objectives, you must know, with crystal clarity, what your priority values are. The AVI process is designed to facilitate your achievement of this clarity.
Unlike competencies, which can be classified as skills, knowledge and attitudes (i.e. the ability to perform activities effectively within an occupation or function to the standard required in employment), values are our lifestyle priorities. They express our wants, desires and preferences. For most people, they are their unconscious motivators.
A key characteristic of successful people is that their values are conscious motivators - i.e. successful people know what their values are.
Researchers over the past 30 years have identified 128 values. They form the building blocks of human nature and relationships. These 128 values cover all that could potentially be important to people, for example:
- Play and Recreation
- Knowledge, Discovery, and Insight
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Human Rights
- Environmental Responsibility
- Achievement and Success
Your priority values are fall into in three categories, Vision, Focus, and Foundation:
- Vision values are your motivators. [The internal dialogue you have between the world-view associated with your Vision values, and the world-view associated with your Foundation values, creates the reality you experience.]
- Focus values are the values you would normally want to put most of your conscious energy into.
- Foundation values demand attention. [Make sure you have strategies in place to enable you to live your foundation values without the need for devoting much conscious energy to them.]
By definition, only objectives, directly related to living your values, can be Meaningful Objectives. You will only follow through and actualize your New Year Resolutions if they are based on your own values.