What is it you plan to do with your one precious life?

While preparing a workshop titled, “Prioritizing Use of Your Precious Time,” it occurred to me to include discussion of the values that drive decision-making.

“Put first things first” is author Stephen Covey’s great time management advice, but how to decide what is the “first thing”? It starts with your core values and how you incorporate them in your work.

Wait a minute, you say, I know what I am doing at work, I have a clear role and job description! But even if you are lucky enough to have clear expectations (unfortunately, many aren’t), the values and vision you bring to work are every bit as important as your task list.

“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” asked the late Mary Oliver in her classic poem, “The Summer Day.” That may seem like an obvious question yet, amid the day-to-day pressures of work and life, we never seem to find enough time to give it adequate reflection. And what “you plan to do” is ultimately driven by your vision and values.

“Your fundamental values and beliefs represent the core of who you are,” argue James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book, “Learning Leadership.” In “Dare to Lead,” Brené Brown adds that value clarity “is an essential support, a North Star in times of darkness.” If you aren’t clear about your values, you won’t be clear about decisions and the actions you take.

Brown names 100 values, encourages the reader to add more to the list and suggests selecting the top two. Selecting more, she argues, diminishes usefulness and clarity of purpose.

Reviewing her list, I selected these as my secondary values: courage, authenticity, gratitude, faith, family, hope, connection, curiosity, love, leadership, joy, respect, vision, teamwork and trust. I also added positive energy, which wasn’t on her list. For my top two, I picked grace and added a new one of my own: growing.

“Growing with grace” defines what is most important to me, how I want to show up. Growing speaks to a key concept emphasized in my leadership workshops — a willingness to always strive to improve and stretch oneself. Grace speaks to my religious experience and the importance of embracing kindness, gratitude, hope and many of the secondary values I listed previously.

Defining these top two values has helped me focus on the work I want to do and how I want to do it, in both my leadership development business and my volunteer work with Braver Angels that helps people bridge political divides.

Taking this further, I created a document, “Life Plan Forward.” This includes a life goal (to inspire myself and others to achieve a higher level of personal and professional performance) as well as key focal points, including cultivating hopefulness and gratitude; honoring family and friendships; and growing, coaching, mentoring leaders. I also included relevant quotes such as:

• “Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen.”

• “Find small ways to add value to others’ lives.” — Adam Grant, TED Talk

• “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” — Maximus

• “Take care of each moment, and it will lead into the next one.” — Kristen LaRue I also added a quote of my own: “The bottom line in life is the quality of relationships and connections with others: how we touch and influence people, and how they touch and influence us. The rest is just details.”

Based on this framework, I put together a to-do list, trying as much as possible to focus daily and weekly activities toward my vision and values. This helps keep me on track as I plan and execute each day.

What do you really want in your precious life? Set aside some time to make a list of core values and prioritize. Then review your work priorities and contemplate how these values relate to your job and life. Consider how you could better integrate these at work or, if necessary, look for another opportunity that better aligns with your values.

We each have an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, including our own. Don’t underestimate your impact!

Douglass P. Teschner, founder of Growing Leadership LLC, can be reached at dteschner@Growing-LeadershipLLC.com.