Write a 3-4 page paper (900-1200 words) that describes your reflections on reading this week's resources (see Part 2 in Living Into Leadership: A Journey In Ethics) and the following exercises of values.

Part One – 1.5 to 2 pages:

This part of this assignment asks you to set up your life so that you are making choices and taking actions that fully express your core values. You have several ways in which you orient your life including, needs, wants, the future and key values.   When you orient your life around needs and wants you ignore what means the most to you resulting in not building a solid foundation that you can leverage to flourish and sustain a life worth living.  

Living a value – based life brings fulfillment. Your values are ideals that are personally important and meaningful for you and draw you forward.  Developing a deep understanding of what you value and your alignment with these virtues brings you closer to understanding yourself, what has meaning for you and what you stand for.  

Read the web link on Integrity and Values (Wikipedia) provided in the Website Section of this session (important to do this if you want to get the full benefit of your work), complete the Values Exercises below and in your reflection paper discussion the questions that follow the Value Exercises.

Value Sort List:  Please circle your top 5 values that are most important to you.

Now that you have identified your top 5 values, rank order your top five values with one being the most important:

Pick one of your top 5 values to write about and to work on – a good choice would be a value that causes you the most difficulty. A value that would cause you difficulty is a value you believe in but are not in alignment with. Misalignment is caused by your belief in this value but your actions don’t follow this belief. When you are aligned with your values are said to have integrity. Integrity is having internal consistency with your values. When you have integrity with your values you are living a life that is authentically you; you’re whole and moving towards meaning and fulfillment.

In your reflection paper discuss why you selected this value to work on. Include in your discussion examples of when you are and aren’t aligned with this value. Discuss when others have violated your values, what were the circumstances, how did you feel, what was the outcome are areas to write about. Reflect deeply and discuss how it feels when you are and aren’t aligned with this value. Following this discussion, discuss five big or little life changes you can make in order to honor this value. You can honor this value be expressing it more in your actions and what you do – add more activities that exemplify this value. You can also honor this value by (eliminating) changing those beliefs and actions that cause you to be out of alignment. Also, discuss how you will monitor your progress towards this goal and when you will know you have complete integrity with this value.

Part Two:

In the next 1.5 to 2 pages discuss other major takeaways you have from reading Section Two in Living Into Leadership: A Journey In Ethics and outside research!