Values are parts of our personality that we all share as human beings, regardless of any criteria that human beings can be divvied up on. Just about all People from any demographic group whether it be based on color, creed, sex, political beliefs, or any other criteria that can be categorized can actually share similar or even the same values.
Where Do Values Come From And What Do They Mean?
Personal values are ethical principles that form your internal beliefs about what is good and what is important to you. Values are what you stand for, your viewpoints, and outlook on life.
They define you as a person, guide you in your decision making, and help you to determine how to conduct yourself with other people and in the world around you, in general. You manifest your values in your personality traits which affects the way you behave alone, and with others.
Whether you are aware of them or not, values shape you into the person that you are. Being aware of your values changing or adjusting them and then embracing them can be a key factor for a man to attain the success in life that he may seek. Values ought to be important to all of us and are well worth being aware of. for every man.
The Question Needed To Be Answered Regarding Values
The question that we need to ask ourselves becomes is it possible for us to consciously define our personal values? Of course it is, but very few of us take the time for the reflection to do so. It is important to point out that most of our personal values have been developed unconsciously and automatically over the course of our lives and therefore, many of them are not truly ‘ours’.
For many of us, with out being aware of it, our values end up being a conglomerate of what was impressed upon us in our formative years, modified by our own experiences as we progress through life. Sometimes our values can be an absolute rejection of what our early experiences were. Values of this nature are often far more consciously determined, often due to abusive or uncaring beginnings.
Personal values provide us with our understanding of what is right and what is wrong, what ends up being our moral compass. It’s called our conscience. It speaks to us, whether it condemns or praises us. Does it bother you if you don’t tell the truth? If so, you have a guilty conscience. It acts as your judge to keep your behaviors aligned to your personal values.
If we are not living out our lives and acting in line with our values, through our own actions or inactions, we can end up sabotaging ourselves from attaining the things that we may want in life and that may actually have or give meaning to our lives.
Knowing what your values are is important and we should do our best to figure them out and then we should do our best to try to live and act out our lives by them.
What are the moral values that you might think will influence your priorities in life? There are quite a few, and may include the following:
- Love
- Honesty
- Forgiveness
- Freedom
- Respect for life
- Self-control
- Courage
- Humility
- Equality
- Acceptance
- Kindness
- Generosity
- Integrity
- Resilience
What Are The Steps In Defining Your Core Values?
Be Aware Of What You Are Doing, As You Are Doing It.
You encounter many situations every day that cause you to react or say something. Don’t just dive into them immediately with an unconscious response. Momentarily, stand back and assess what best to do for a particular circumstance. You have the intelligence, so use it and not your instinct. You should use your superego (Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality) to act morally.
Is it wise to think, “Go with your heart” or “If you feel it’s right, then do it”? No, not really. This line of thinking can prove to be treacherous. You are acting with your emotions, and that our emotions can be unreliable. It is actually not thinking, but non-thinking. On the other hand, your values are the products of your thinking ability, of your reasoning power. It is what you decide to do and not what your primitive, impulsive, instinctive gut instinct is telling you.
Understand Your Motivation.
What motivates you to tell the truth? Is it to continue the values which your parents taught you from childhood? Or do you get self-satisfaction when you’re honest in all your dealings?
It is important for us to understand if our motivation is for a true and real benefit. Ideally we should all be motivated to act in ways and do things that benefit ourselves and those around us.
When you understand the reason why you act the way you do, then your values become more structured and clearer to you.
Train Your Conscience.
The feeling of guilt tells you that your conscience is sensitive to your wrongdoing. Otherwise, you will not feel anything when you lie. It’s a sign that urges you to correct the mistake that you made. So, listen to your conscience. When you do, you further develop that ideal trait.
Evaluate The Consequences.
You need to learn to identify your options. To lie or not to lie, to act nobly or dishonestly, those are your options. Then weigh the pros and cons of your options. Just knowing right from wrong is not enough. You need to follow through the idea with action. It’s important that you understand and appreciate the benefits of being honest over being dishonest and then to completely understand the consequences of your choices and actions..
Reflect On Your Past.
When you reflect on the mistakes of your youth, and come to terms with them, you learn life lessons. Why? You will have been in a situation where you made a poor choice and suffered the consequences. Have you been grounded by your parents for being late? In the same manner, as an adult, when you’re late reporting to your job, you must accept the consequences of your actions.
Your boss might be angry or dissatisfied with your job performance. If tardiness is habitual, you might lose your job in the end. You can resolve to improve yourself by getting up earlier (use an alarm clock) and better manage your time so you won’t need to rush. The values you’re nurturing are punctuality and time-management, and respect for others.
Why Is It Important To Have Well-Defined Moral Values?
It is said that social values are changing with time. These days social values seem to be changing on the turn of a dime. Maybe for some, but not for all. This is a subjective call because everybody’s memory is imperfect.
What really matters is your own values – if you become successful, will you disregard your values such as courage and resiliency, which helped get you where you are now? The answer lies within you. But remember that a strong person possesses deep-rooted moral values that don’t shift on a whim.
Values enable you. Values allow you to weather storms and changes that can be happening that are out of your control. In crazy and uncertain times, your values can be the guide you need to maintain some amount of control.
Having values in place can be the way that we need that leads us through the chaos and into some sense of order.
Conclusion
Your values are what you prioritize in yourself and others. They also help you set up boundaries with the people in your life.
Knowing what your values are should allow you to drop the dead wood in your life, ignore the trivialities and focus your focus and your energy on what really matters to you.
Your values help you to define who you are, what you stand for and what is important to you. Do yourself a favor and make the time to figure them out. Not doing so can lead to you having a life that is not worthy and that would be tragic.
PS: If you are wondering what the translation is from the pendant in the picture, “Acta Non Verba”, it means “actions not words”. We can infer this to mean, “do more, speak less”. Which is not such a bad way to live a mans life, wouldn’t you agree?
Be A Man – Do The Right Thing. Know Who You Are. Know What Your Values Are And Do Your Best To Positively Live Your Life With Them And By Them.
BAM!!! Be A Man! Do The Right Thing.
Be the DtRTy Guy!