Artifact 2: Life Value
Objective:
- Explore one’s own value system
Life Value
Family
Health
Friendship
Personal Development
Enjoyment
Wisdom
Service
Independence
Loyalty
Integrity
Community
Personal Accomplishment
Location
Security
Wealth
Leadership
Power
Expertness
Creativity
Prestige
Today I went on a run and I try to run everyday, I think that personal health is very important because without our health we would be unable to do any other thing that we value on this list. Our time on earth is finite and for us to be able to do more and contribute more to those we care about we must first be able to take care of ourselves. I also worked on homework today which is gaining my own personal development. Our development as people is essential, would continuing to develop ourselves and strengthening who we are as people we would stagnant. Enjoyment is also important as what is the point of living if we do not enjoy our own lives, I spent time today interacting with friends as true friendship is important for our mental health and it also provides a great deal of enjoyment.
I think that for me Family had to be the top of the list, as those who are most important to me and I know will always accept me are my family. I grew up on a farm so I was instilled with a since of the value of hard work and determination. I also learned from my parents the value of kindness to all people and to always try to treat others with kindness without giving up your own personal power. I can not really think of a value given in me by my family that I no longer think is valid, in fact I think I am still learning new valuable lessons from them on a daily bases. A goal that I have for myself that have yet to accomplish are to learn German, I was born in Switzerland and forgetting the language of my birth is something I deeply regret. I think that a stronger since of discipline will help me achieve this goal.
Reflection:
This artifact caused me to wonder what outside influences and forces caused me to form my values the way I have. I think that the obvious ones are parents who have a tremendous amount of influence in shaping the values that their children hold. This is shown that generally children tend to hold the same political opinions as their parents. Siblings and friends also have a influence on what values we end up having as we tend to emulate those we spend the most time with. In a more broad since I think that society, culture, economics, religion and other systems of being and ideology shape what values we have. I terms of internal values, I think that drives that we consider to be internal have some bases in our external world that we in turn have internalized.
I think that in the process of working on my life values assignment caused me to really evaluate what things I thought where important to me on a very specific point by point bases. I think that before this project if some asked me what my values are I could give a fairly general answer as to what things I thought were important in my life and what attributes I thought were worth seeking out to be. However the experience of looking at values in a very direct way and to actually physically rank them was an entirely new experience and forced me to critically evaluate what my values are and even further than this their direct value in relation to each other. Doing this has given my a much clearer picture on what my values are.
Future:
In the future I think that my values will inevitably change based on experiences I have and responsibilities that are added to my life. I imagine a traumatic experience would cause me to reevaluate values in some way or another. Also things like marriage and fatherhood would probably have a drastic affect on what I value.
