A Journey of Reflection into Your Values and Your Life

When life’s speed bumps surprise and challenge you, it’s best to respond in a way that honors the values you’ve chosen to live by. The problem is that we haven’t all found the opportunity to truly discover and begin consciously living our values. To actually own and fully live our values we need to discover them both in our life experience and in our best hopes for the future. This course teaches a way you can accomplish this. Building on the design of an award-winning learning experience called the Personal Creed Project, the course guides you to discover what you value, beginning with a comprehensive reflection across the influences that shape who you are today.

Discover What You Value by First Exploring What and Who Have Shaped You

After completing this course you will have:

• identified which formative influences in your life most shape you,
• chosen values that emerge from your reflections on these most formative influences,
• understood which of your formative influences connect you to each of your values,
• decided what difference you’d like to make in others’ lives as you live by your chosen values in the years ahead.
• presented to others in your life what you’ve discovered about yourself in this course.

Some Backgound

The Personal Creed Project began as a classroom journey of self-discovery for sophomores in teacher-researcher John Creger’s English classes at American High School in Fremont CA. Over three generations the project has given thousands of high school and college students new understandings of who they are and where they want their lives to be going. Today the Creed Project continues to evolve.

In the Personal Creed Organization John is joined by a group of recent students led by Naman Verma (c/o of 2024) and Daniel Davis (c/o 2025) who share the enthusiasm common to those who have participated in the Personal Creed Project around the U.S. and in other countries. Our team is excited to launch a new version of this evolving journey of self-discovery we’ve redesigned for the Udemy learning community.

Benefits of the Personal Creed Experience

In the videos accompanying most course reflections, members of the Creed Team share personal examples of how we’ve each benefitted from the process of reflection this course guides you through. As John mentions in the video preview of this course, statements like the ones below from students who have shared in the Personal Creed experience over the years have heightened his own self-confidence and sense of purpose.

The benefits these students cite are the most commonly mentioned benefits. There are many more. They could  be experienced by learners of any age. Mostly from the class of 2022, these comments are consistent with responses across the past three decades:

1. Increased hope for the future:

I think this project made it clear for many students that they had a past, they have a present, and that they will have a future. It has gotten rid of that part of me that was unsure and skeptical about my future. ~ Shabnam B. c/o 2010

2. Increased belief in self:

I proved myself to myself. I look in the mirror and I see how I overcame my hardships. How I kept the faith. How I have the strength to keep on going on, even when I was dealt some of the worst cards. So instead of seeing everything I was not, I started seeing everything I was. ~ Anonymous student, c/o 2022

3. Improved mental health:

But the point is to see everything as a whole, and be okay with it. And I see myself sometimes, and I am okay. I don’t have to let anything hold me down. I am so much more than I ever thought I was. And if that’s not something to be happy about, I don’t know what is. ~ Anonymous student, c/o 2022

4. More compassion for others:

I have always wanted to help others and volunteer more in the future, and this project has helped create steps to make that into a reality. It has helped create a picture of what I want the future to be like for me. I want to help those who are less fortunate, especially during this period as everyone deserves kindness and help at times of difficulty. ~ Tamanna S. c/o 2022

What I realized from my Creed Project was that every person on this planet has problems they face, whether it is Jeff Bezos or a homeless person on the streets. You must be able to keep an open mind and realize this without being selfish. ~ Aaron L. c/o 2022

5. Heightened sense of identity:

I believe that the Creed Project is the best project I have done so far and was worth all the time and effort I put into it. It was the break from education that I desperately needed and gave me a lot of ideas about who I am and what defines me. ~ Aaron L. c/o 2022

I know who I am because of this creed project. ~ Varsana N. c/o 2022

Course Overview / Topics Covered

The course is built around the My Personal Creed Project (MPCP) Workbook, a Google doc in five parts with 14 steps you’ll copy and keep on your desktop. Reflections come with video explanations and some with optional exercises for further exploration. We encourage you to enjoy these. Following along with the Udemy course in your workbook, guided by 13 videos, you’ll complete the sequence of reflections that has generated enthusiasm for the Personal Creed experience.

Course Reflections

You’ll begin by reflecting through a series of categories on who and what have influenced your life. You’ll consider the background circumstances of your life, your specific life experiences, prominent people in your life, your own personality, and even the questions you ask. The reflections in this part of the course guide you to isolate the influences that have done most to form the person you are today. You’ll follow the Creed Project’s method of reflecting: casting a wide net, winnowing down your findings, and using reflection to deepen your understanding of the influences you determine are primary forces in your life.

In the next stages of the process you’ll learn to reflect across your previous lists of influences, further condensing your findings into a short list of influences of various kinds that have impacted you more than all others. A final series of reflections helps you again consider your main formative influences, this time with a goal of deciding what values your findings about each influence guide you to embrace and stand for in your life.

The Presentation

The classroom versions of the Personal Creed Project have always culminated with each student’s presentation in front of the class community. The Creed presentations are unforgettable transformative experiences for individual presenters and classmates alike. For this online version of the project we encourage you to choose a face-to-face venue or virtual platform, design and invite your own audience, and make a defining presentation of your creed. In your presentation you share your course findings with your audience: the prime influences that have shaped you, the values you choose to embrace, the qualities you want to develop in yourself in order to best live those values, and the difference you’d like to make in others’ lives by living them, as an individual and as a citizen.

Long-term Benefits

Whatever your age, after completing the journey of reflection in this course, you’ll more thoroughly understand yourself and where you want your life to go in years ahead. Our shared enthusiasm has brought our team together in the spirit of building something new for others to share. We are thrilled to bring this new adaptation of the Personal Creed Project to you and our fellow learners on the Udemy platform.