If you'd like to learn about my personal process answering these 9 questions, keep reading as I share an old blog post about what it was like for me to take this questionnaire. I also share some of my take-aways from the exercise and what my own 3 Creative Heart principles are...this blog post was originally published on Tuesday April 3, 2012...

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Getting To Know Myself Better

Life seems to be a never ending lesson in learning about ourselves, if not in learning about Life and what it all means, and it seems I have been learning quite a lot about myself in the past month or two...

I have shared my experience with the abundance workshop hosted by two wonderful life coaches and it opened my eyes to an underlying issue of feeling unworthy that I was truly unaware of.

At the time this workshop was ending, I came across a video that posed a series of questions to help you figure out what your purpose is, and I have linked to this video quite a lot in the past few weeks! I can say that I learned a little more about myself or rather, I flushed out information about myself that had been simmering under the surface. Let me share what I learned from doing this thought provoking video and some of the inspiring outcomes from it.

There were a total of 9 questions asked in this video and three answers were required for each question. This meant that a total of 27 values would be accrued at the end of the exercise.

Then I would have to go through the 27 answers to find patterns, which would help me to see where my passions and purpose actually lie...at this time in my life anyway! After completing the exercise, I realized that it might be a good idea to complete the exercise every 2 or 3 years to see how, or if, some of my values have changed over time. After all, I can honestly say that in my 20's, a lot of my focus was on Fashion since I did study it along with learning Pattern Drafting, but over the years, my focus has shifted more toward STYLE than fashion, but that's another post for another day =-)

As I worked my way through the questions, I began to see patterns reveal themselves...here are just a few of the questions that I worked through...

"How do you fill your space?"

The things I most fill my home with are BOOKS, ART SUPPLIES and VINTAGE GOODS - vintage goods could be clothing for myself, items for my home or supplies to be used in my artwork...

"Where do you spend your money?" 

I spend most of my spare money on BOOKS, ART SUPPLIES and VINTAGE GOODS...

"What areas of your life are most organized?" 

My BOOKS are organized, my DVDS (which you might consider books on film!) are organized and my ART SUPPLIES are organized...

Hmmmmm, do you see a pattern here??!?

And one of the last questions I answered:

"Who or what inspires you the most?"

I divided the answers into the categories of WHO inspires me:

• Nina Bagley, creator of meaningful jewelry and Mixed Media ART BOOKS
• Joseph Cornell, Mixed Media/Collage ARTIST
• Nick Bantock, Mixed Media ARTIST of ARTFUL BOOKS and BOOK WRITER
• Orly Avineri, creator of ART BOOKS and ART JOURNALS and INSTRUCTOR

Then, I looked at WHAT inspires me:

• Altered ART BOOKS
• Artful Journey Retreat
• Anthropologie stores and catalogs

I don't know about you, but BOOKS are making their presence known in this exercise!! 

I looked at my answers, or values, as they turned out to be at this stage of the exercise and I made a list of the three main values and made sub-categories:

The top three things I value most at this time in my life are the following:

BOOKS * ART * FRIENDS

The sub-categories of my main list are really details of how they relate to the main values:

BOOKS - I love reading them, I love making them, I love altering them and I've thought about one day writing one

ART - I love mixed media and collage art, I love my supplies and I love buying new supplies as it sparks my creativity; I love traditional art books that tell you about artists and art history, I love working on art projects and I love participating in art workshops, which leads into the last category...

FRIENDS - I love being with my friends, I love creating with my friends and I love my community of friends, and community* is important to me.

I have to say that I felt the need to add a 'bonus' category of VINTAGE GOODS since this came up almost as often as "friends" did in my answers and this is because I love the ENVIRONMENT of vintage, well-worn, well used things. They have a history and a STORY to them...and my ENVIRONMENT, what I surround myself with, is also important to me in my life...

Seeing these values written down, and the details on how they relate, now helps me to focus on the things and activities that matter to me most, which I hope will bring more joy in my life. I also hope it will help me to see opportunities that will bring the most fulfillment, and maybe even help me figure out a way to live a part of my personal mission.

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* Since writing this old blog post, I now use the word COMMUNITY in place of the word 'friends', as I have created or been part of wonderful online communities and participate in them wholeheartedly. Sometimes our souls can be fed through the bonds of community, though it might be a temporary community...and since I use the word 'community' as one of my Heart-Full values, I now refer to my values as my 'ABC's'! ;)

Also, the video I made reference to is no longer available, as the creator has closed their YouTube account - I am glad I did the exercises and saved my notes about it to share with others!