Have You Written a Values Checklist Lately (Or Ever)?

You’ve heard of them: vision boards, bucket lists, and many other activities to help you achieve your dreams. You’ve also likely done them. I know I have. (And as I write this, I’m trying to remember where I put them all.)

The purpose of such exercises is clear: to help us crystallize and visualize what we want.

These activities have helped me do that and more.

They’ve also raised in me an inkling. A nagging feeling. A suspicion that despite my best efforts to draft, edit, and rewrite my goals or search for the perfect image to better explain my wants and desires in life, that . . . I had somehow missed something bigger.

Then in one of my usual YouTube binges, I stumbled upon the answer.

I was watching one of Robert Barron’s stirring podcasts. He prompted the audience to consider their values in their requests and prayers to God; at the end, he looked into the camera and asked, “What do you want?”

In all my efforts to construct an eye-catching vision board or comprehensive bucket list, I’ve never been prompted by my peers or myself to consider the values behind the images and goals. And yet, as I write this, it seems so inherent to the process. Seriously, how could I have missed that?

Real success involves not just the attainment of money and prestige but how we earn it. The mantra “It’s the journey, not the destination” rings self-evident here, and one need not look far or strain their imagination for examples of this truism.

Consider the person who wants a million dollars. Achieving that end ethically — through hard work, dedication to a cause, years of saving — looks and feels much different than getting it unethically — through theft, intimidation, overcharging clients, etc.

And then there is the fulfillment of working towards your purpose alone versus with a support network, your closest friends and allies. The phrase “It’s lonely at the top” may ring true once you get what you want. Or is doesn’t have to, if along the way you are purposeful in your efforts to go about your success while building meaningful, powerful relationships.

There is also the benefit that values — ideals which are good and right, ones that speak of your soul — provide you with a consistent, driving force. I’ve found that when I’ve read my bucket list or reviewed my vision board, I had more motivation and assurance that I could achieve my goals when my purpose had a solid foundation of beliefs, a moral compass to help me navigate the toughest challenges.

Whether faith in God, the guiding principles of the Universe, love for your family, or your commitment to fellowship, how you show up matters. Your vision board will simply be a collection of random images unless they’re connected to your character. Your bucket list will become an empty distraction, a product of habit, unless it speaks to your soul. Ultimately, any measure of success will ring meaningless unless supported by a tried and true value system — one you hold dear, deep within.

So ask yourself:

Do you know what you value?

What motivates you?

What is behind your wants and desires?

Or to put it another way:

What do you want?

And why?