Identifying how we value ten different components of your life, using the Valued Living Questionnaire (Wilson, 2002; Wilson & Murrell, 2004).
The ten components listed below will represent some of the most important aspects of our lives. Consider how much importance you would like to assign to each component, this can be very different from how much energy you currently give to that area currently.
Perhaps you highly value self-care but currently find it difficult to find the discipline to actually devote time to it. Rate the ideal importance of each component on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being not important at all and 10 being extremely important. It can be habitual to think of what you ‘should’ rate as important, perhaps disregarding your own true feelings and opinions, so take time to really consider what is honestly true for you.
Valued Living Questionnaire (Wilson, 2002)
Component – Less Important Moderately Important Extremely Important
Family 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Romantic relationships 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Parenting 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Friends and social life 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Work 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Education and training 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Recreation, interests, hobbies, music, and art 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Spirituality and religion 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Citizenship and community life 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Self-care (exercise, diet, relaxation, etc) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Having done that, next consider how much time and effort you actually put into each component. You may find that you highly value “self-care” at a 10 only put a 5’s worth of actual energy and effort into fulfilling that component.
Again, try to be as honest as you possibly can be, once you have done this compare the two markers and see if there is a deficit of effort around things you highly value or conversely note anywhere you are putting a high level of effort into something that you actually value relatively little, where is there room to grow? Where are you putting the right amount of effort? Considering shifting your effort more toward doing more of what you value!