If you've watched it already, you're ready for my tips on how to set smart goals easily:

Core Values are the fundamental beliefs you carry about life. They help you tell right from wrong and are a little bit like an internal navigation system. They are the unspoken rules and regulations, terms and conditions by which you live your life. Your mind uses them to make quick decisions based on the things you consider important. Without them you wouldn’t be able to prioritize, because your priorities directly reflect your values. If you want to find your purpose (your life’s highest priority), you absolutely must be familiar with your values, so you can make sure this purpose and all the goals associated with it are in alignment with those values.

You don’t always consciously create or choose your values. In fact, most of them were handed down to you from your parents, friends and role-models without you even knowing. If you wish to change them, that’s totally within your power. But first you must figure out where they currently stand. Even if you don’t want to change them, it’s important to know what they are, because they play such a major part in your happiness. That’s because we feel like something’s amiss when the things we say and do don’t align with the things we consider important.

Your interests are the pastimes that bring you to life. The topics you think about all the time and the events you can’t wait to make time for. They are the subjects you most often research and read about. They are your hobbies; the activities you carry out in your free time (and maybe even at work, if you’re lucky). You don’t necessarily have to be good at them either. You just have to enjoy doing them.

Your gifts are the tasks you are good at. They are the things you have a knack for, whether people say you are talented at them or not. Sometimes we are endowed with talent for things we don’t particularly take pleasure in doing, but more often than not we derive enjoyment from excelling at something, even if we aren’t recognized for it.

Most people have a list of many different values, interests and gifts, which is why they have trouble figuring out what their purpose should be. But if you were to create a Venn diagram, where your list of Values was entered into one circle, your Interests in a second circle and your Gifts in a third, the common elements found in the space where all three circles intersect could be used to create a Life Purpose you’d be happy with and excited by.

A Venn Diagram like this can help you find your Purpose

I’ve included an example below. Consider these values, interests and gifts for Person E:

Values:

Leadership

Service to others

Recognition

Health

Mastery

Gifts:

Good memory

Steady hands

Patience

Interests:

The human body

Fixing things

Solving problems

A profession that combines all three is surgery. Becoming a leading surgeon who provides humanitarian aid and helps people regain their health would be an excellent Life Purpose for this person.

Your interests and gifts should be pretty easy for you to list, but Values are a bit harder, so here’s an interactive form that can help you determine your values here (https://www.happyandauthentic.com/determine-your-values). If you’d like even more help with it, I’ve taken the liberty of featuring a handy little activity below that you can use to help you out.

Instructions:

Consider the following questions and answer them to the best of your ability.

1. Recall times when you have been so absorbed in what you were doing that you hardly noticed the time. What were you doing?

2. Think about the things that you find meaningful. What do you think of? Include ideals, feelings, and activities.

3. What values are most important to you? Circle/check all of the values that are most important to you from the examples below and/or add your own. Feel free to circle/check those that were identified from your essay and the exercises above as well.

The Values '"List" below is ONLY to give you some ideas of example or sample values. We are each unique, so there will undoubtedly be words that are missing from this list, and different words that sum up your values better. Feel free to add those words to the end of the list below in the blank spaces.

4. Now, choose the ten most important to you

5. Prioritize them from least important to most important.

6. Out of your top ten, which are the five most important to you? Add those to your Venn Diagram

Try out these tips and if you’re still having trouble, send me your questions here, or book a complimentary breakthrough session to see how I can personally help you out.

Want more videos with free happiness tips? Visit my YouTube channel today! Each video comes with an article like this one to help you put its strategy into practice.

If you’re looking for more detailed ways to create a happier life, click here for self-help resources. There are three books there I particularly recommend. The second one is my favourite and it personally transformed my life!

See you next Sunday! And remember: happiness doesn’t require energy, it requires strategy.