Spiritual Exercise – Integrity

Naming Your Values

Integrity and value-clarity go hand in hand. But do we really take the time to name and bring our core values into awareness? And do our self-proclaimed values match how others see us? This exercise invites you to wrestle with both of these questions.

Review this list of values, then:

1. Pick your five core values from the list.
2. Show the list to someone close to you and ask them to pick the five they think are your core values, without letting them know which you picked earlier.
3. Compare lists and discuss the differences, as well as why each of you picked what you did.

Taking it Deeper

Here are some additional questions and an activity to explore more:

• From your selected five values, which one would like to live into more fully?
• What were (in your understanding) your parent(s) five core values? In what way are your core values and theirs the same and different?
• Which of your core values are most directly and deeply related to your UU faith? i.e. which value might not be on the list if it wasn’t for your faith?
• What’s the newest value to make it on to your list of top five? Which value did it “replace”? Did that happen consciously? Or did the shift sneak up on you?
• Take this online values test and see if it reveals anything new: https://www.valuescentre.com/tools-assessments/pva/