Objectives:
- Understand that values are formed from external and internal drives of an individual
- Explore one’s own value system
Original Post:
This is the order of my values from my most important to least important.
Family, Loyalty, Friendship, Enjoyment, Integrity, Wealth, Prestige, Power, Health, Independence, Personal Accomplishment, Security, Personal Development, Expertness, Creativity, Community, Wisdom, Leadership, Location, Service
When reviewing the activities I did today against the twenty values I found that today I mainly did activities that involve friendship and enjoyment. In fact, out of all the activities I did today they all fell under my top 5 values (with the exception of brushing my teeth which would fall under the health category). I watched football (enjoyment), threw a ball around (enjoyment/friendship), called my brother (family/friendship), and hung out with my friends (friendship/enjoyment). As you can see the activities I did today played off of each other. To me my top values aren’t all different categories; they all mix together and intertwine. I find enjoyment from my friends and family. I am also loyal to them and find being honest to them is the best policy.
I think the largest belief pattern I inherited from my parents was that of loyalty and integrity. They brought me up to do the right thing and tell the truth always. I think that those are good beliefs and they still have authority over me and are relatively valid. I wouldn’t say honesty is always the best policy. Lying is better in some cases like: “does this dress make me look fat?” or “how was dinner?” but honesty is still an integral part of my belief system. You just have to know the right time where it’s better to lie to save someone’s feelings.
Reflection:
The life values assessment forced me to think intensively on what I valued the most. These values were things that I have lived my life by but not necessarily think about everyday. The assessment helped me think about my personal value system and how it affects me daily. My five top values: Family, Loyalty, Friendship, Enjoyment, and Integrity have all played an integral part in my life. Once I discovered my cherished values I was able to see them reflected in my everyday activities and think strategically about what drives these values.
I am motivated by internal and external drives. My family, whom I value over everything else (pictured above), raised me to be truthful and honest. For me to not be loyal or have integrity would be to let down my family. I believe these values wouldn’t be so high up if it wasn’t for how my family raised me. On the other hand friendship and enjoyment are top values because they internally motivate me. Shear enjoyment is a high value of mine because I feel that life should be lived to have fun. I am not motivated by anything else to have enjoyment except my internal drive. I love hanging out with friends no matter what the circumstances are and it is one of my main internal drives. Without this whole lesson on values I would not have thought so much about what drives me.
Future:
Now that I have started to think more about my personal values I will be able to understand the decisions I make in my daily life. I will want to track how my values shift with age but I can see my top 10 remaining in the same area for the rest of my life. It is easy for a college student to value different things than a forty-year-old working man so I’ll just have to see how my values shift.