The Bull’s Eye Values Exercise

Are things that are important to us. They are how we decide whether our actions are good or bad, right or wrong. They are highlevel generalisations that describe what is important to you. They are a filter. They are how we decide how we feel about our act

Values are the answers to the question: ‘In a world where you could choose to have your life be about something, what would you choose?’ Assessing your values means becoming aware of the directions to take in your life that are in line with what is truly important to you. In addition, values can be a starting point for you to construct goals that promote behaviours in those directions. Although values are by definition considered to be important (e.g., exercising, spending time with children), your behaviours may often not be consistent with your values (e.g., spending more hours in front of the television, working during evening hours, etc.). In order to decrease the discrepancy between values and actual valued living, it is important to create awareness of this discrepancy in the first place. This exercise can be used to increase the awareness of your values and the extent to which you live in line with them. It can be a good starting point for making value-based changes in life.

The goal of the Bull’s Eye Value Exercise is to identify and measure personal values, values attainment and persistence in the face of barriers.

The Bull’s Eye Dart Board is divided into four areas of living that are important in people’s lives—work/education, leisure, relationships and personal growth/health.

1. Work/education refers to your career aims, your values about improving your education and knowledge and generally feeling of use to those close to you or to your community (i.e., volunteering, overseeing your household).

2. Leisure refers to how you play in your life, how you enjoy yourself, your hobbies or other activities that you spend your free time doing (i.e., gardening, sewing, coaching a children’s soccer team, fishing, playing sports).

3. Relationships refer to intimacy in your life. Relationships with your children, your family of origin, your friends and social contacts in the community.

4. Personal growth/health refers to your spiritual life, either in organised religion or personal expressions of spirituality, exercise, nutrition and addressing health risk factors like drinking, drug use, smoking and weight.

In this exercise, you will be asked to look more closely at your personal values in each of these areas and write them out. Then you will evaluate how close you are to living your life in keeping with your values. You will also take a closer look at the barriers or obstacles in your life that stand between you and the kind of life you want to live.

Don’t rush through this. Just take your time.