How to Create Values-Aligned Financial Goals

In our Values-Aligned Financial Goals workshop, Melissa Mittelstaedt led The Pledgettes in mindful session full of exercises to determine our values for the ultimate goal of using them to guide our financial goals.

At The Pledgettes, our values define our approach to personal finance. As Melissa put it so beautiful in our workshop, “Values are what keeps us in alignment with our soul.”

That is why it’s so important to us to identify our values and ensure the goals we create and the steps we take to achieve them are in alignment with those values.

This workshop was an incredible way to determine goals, revisit previous goals and evaluate the steps we are taking. Members can watch the workshop replay for free.

Not-yet-members – we’ve got a treat for you! Read below to host your own private mini-workshop. Or better yet – become a member today!

Let’s dive in to what this workshop was all about . . .

The Definition of “Value”

It’s important for you to define what a value means to the world, to you, and our finances.

We spent a bit of time at the beginning of this session discussing what that can definition can be. Melissa shared five definitions of the value and we were able to choose what was meant for us. The one that resonated most for us was the one written above: our values keep us in alignment with our soul. 

Brene Brown’s Values Exercise

From her book, Dare to Lead, Brene Brown provides a list of values to help kickstart the process of what matters most to you.  

We went through this list and wrote down what resonated. From there, we culled the list down to our top 10. Then 4. Then 2. It was tough and interesting to hear which piece of the process was a sticking point for each of us – it was different for us all!

This is a helpful exercise whether you already know your values or not; they are always worth revisiting. In fact, we talked a lot about how our values change over time and with the various seasons of life. It’s always helpful to revisit these values and check in with yourself on your priorities.

We’ve included the list here and you can download the list of values from Brene Brown’s website.

Financial Goals

This was the part of the session where we began tying our values to our personal finances and financial goals.

We spent time writing out our Financial Goals and then tying them to the two values that were most important to us now. 

It was incredible to share in the session what these financial goals meant to us and, more specifically, how they helped embody and bring to life the values we identified in the previous exercise.

This is something we spend a lot of time doing in PAL, The Pledgettes Accountability League, which Melissa runs for the Pledgettes. PAL is a three-month session run in a group with like-minded women to help identify your values, your goals and to create accountability partners and structures around them to achieve big financial goals. You can read more about PAL or fill out an interest form HERE.

Identifying Next Steps/Actions

After defining our top values-aligned financial goals, we brainstormed next steps for starting to reach these goals. The structure of this workshop built up to this point, so it was easy to jot down some ideas on getting started that felt easy to kick start our ways to this goal.

Workshopping our next steps as a group was helpful too as we chimed in and helped encourage the other woman on their next steps – applauding, pushing to go further and celebrating their future money moves.

Visualize the Reality when your Goals are Achieved

The last part of this session was a wonderful way to conclude this hour. We spent four minutes visualizing our what our life (reality) would be when we achieved these goals. 

So much of The Pledgettes community is values-focused and I’m grateful Melissa Mittelstaedt brought this exercise and conversation to The Pledgettes community. 

Keep in touch with Melissa

Message Melissa within The Pledgettes or emailing hello@melissamitt.com.

Or better yet – join PAL! Each three-month session comes with a free 1:1 coaching session with Melissa.

We hope to see you there!