Assessing Your Values: Tips for Making the Most of the Summer

Take summer by the reins and prepare for the school year ahead.

Well, fellow students, here we are. School’s finally let out and summer has made its long-awaited appearance. For millions of us, summer is an opportunity to relax and recharge in preparation for the school year ahead. You may have a trip planned, meetups with your friends and family, or are just looking forward to sleeping in (and, honestly, who can blame you).

I am in full support of summer relaxation, especially when you’re dealing with the horrors of high school. But there’s another idea of summer’s role that I’m a big proponent of: using it as a time to assess your personal values and build consistent habits. This applies even more to college-bound seniors needing to acquaint themselves with new academic expectations and routines. This letter will include some of the tenets I’ve adopted into my summer so I can check in with myself as I head into the next round of classes.

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” - Napoleon Hill

1. Identify Your Personal Values

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in day-to-day obligations to the point where you confuse them for your values. Our values lie at the core of what we do and what motivates us to do difficult tasks, so it’s easy to look at our actions when searching for these values. When your actions don’t align with your inner beliefs, however, that’s when things can get bit dicey. As a student, it’s crucial to identify your values early on so that you don’t box yourself into a corner as you plan your classes and future career path.

Try writing a list of five values that make you the happiest or feel the most pride. Here are some examples:

• Achievement

• Efficiency

• Hard Work

• Positivity

• Adventure

• Empathy

• Health

• Equality

• Honesty

Once you’ve curated a list of your top five, rank them in order of how important they are to you. Now, when making a decision, go down your list and ask yourself if they conflict with any of your personal values.

You may wonder: “How do I know if these are really my core values?” To that, I say: experiment! Going forward, if you ever feel regret after a decision (big or small), take a moment to reflect on why that is and what value in your list contradicts that reasoning.

2. Create S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Have you ever created a New Years’ Resolution? For those of you who have, you probably don’t look back at them fondly. After all, not many people actually fulfill them, much less remember them a few months later. Why? For starters, your resolution was probably a hollow or “empty” goal. Empty goals have no plan or vision. For example, consider this list of resolutions:

1. Lose weight

2. Start meditating

3. Eat healthier

4. Improve my grades

Pretty boring right? This is exactly why you should start setting S.M.A.R.T. goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Let’s take a look at our new resolution list with this framework in mind:

1. Lose weight by going out for a morning jog around my neighborhood at 8 AM every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, ensuring I jog at least 1.5 miles.

2. Start meditating every morning in my room when I wake up at 7 AM for 5 minutes.

3. Eat healthier by bringing a daily food log wherever I go (this is a common keystone habit).

4. Improve my grades by blocking out time for schoolwork every afternoon from 3 PM to 5 PM at home.

Looking at the first example, I ensured the goal was specific by mentioning that I’d “go for a morning jog” and that it’d be “around my neighborhood,” establishing the what and where. I made sure that it was measurable by requiring I jog “at least 1.5 miles.” Since, in this example, I’m just starting to exercise, I limited my exercise to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which makes the goal more attainable given my experience. Finally, I scheduled the jog for 8 AM on those days, so the goal is time-bound.

3. Build Habits to Fulfill Your Goals

If your SMART goals are planned for the distant future, break them down into smaller short-term goals, and convert those goals into habits.

In this mind map, my goal is to get into an Ivy League university. Looking at the end branches, I’ll ask myself: “What are helpful habits I should get into that would help me get closer to my core goal?” If I want to “form relationships with teachers and upperclassmen,” maybe I could get into the habit of having a short five-minute conversation with my teacher after class each day. To make it easier, I can begin the upcoming school year by picking a seat at the front of the class. I go into more detail about making and breaking habits in a previous post.