View my original posts about Life Values here!

Objective:

– Understand that values are formed from external and internal drives of an individual
– Explore one’s own value system

Reflection:

This assignment was extremely interesting to me. I really enjoyed organizing my values and understanding each personal value I have is actually derived from one of two, or maybe even both, sources of internal and external drives. I now understand that each person has very different values and that these values are derived from an array of sources, both internal and external. This assignment helped me to really explore myself and my own values, which was interesting because it allowed me to see that I have become who I am due to a mixture of internal and external sources. I was really engaged in the process of this assignment because I had never thought about my values in this way before. My top five values were:

– Family
– Integrity
– Friendship
– Loyalty
– Wisdom

My personal values of family, friendship, and wisdom were derived from internal sources. I have always been very close with my family and would do absolutely anything to protect the closeness of my family. I strongly believe that my family has been instrumental in shaping who I have become and I value their influence on my life. Friendship is internally important to me because I feel that friends are an extension of who I am and  represent a sort of family outside of the home. Friends have a massive influence on who I will become in the future and I choose to surround myself with people that share my values and goals. I want to make my friends and family proud, and when this occurs, I satisfy and internal source of pride and accomplishment. Wisdom is also an internal drive for me because I have a strong desire to continue learning each and every day. I love to learn in school about subjects that are interesting and beneficial for my future development into a working citizen. In addition, I love to learn from myself and about myself each day. I value growth and development of character and strive to become a better person. I do my best to learn from my mistakes and know that I would not be who I am now without acknowledgement of my mistakes and the desire to move forward.

My values of integrity and loyalty are derived from external sources. I feel that over the years they have developed into internal drives that push me to become the person I want to be, however, I learned these values from my parents. My parents have always pushed me to be successful in all of my endeavors and I feel that having integrity will ultimately will allow me to achieve this in any situation. I try to always be honest and I think that being honest is a large part of having integrate. In addition, loyalty is derived from my family as well. My parents have always taught us to support our friends and family in all situations, even if we have trouble accepting a decision somebody may have made. It is important to always encourage development of our relationships with family and friends because if we do not lend these relationships the attention they need, they may soon dissolve.

This is a collage of pictures of me with my mom, brothers, friends, and boyfriend. These individuals have a huge influence on the person I am today and the person I will become in the future. They support me and impact my personal values in many ways.

I appreciated doing this assignment for AAD 250 because it allowed me the time to think about what is most important to me in life. This assignment allowed me to see that ultimately, my family has been the most important influence on my values from an external source and that this matches closely with my internal sources because I strongly value my relationships with family and friends. All of my values tie together through my desire to be successful in the future with both my career and relationships.

After rereading my original post, I now more fully understand the reading assignment we had about life values. In my original post about our weekly reading, I stated that I did not fully understand what the author, H. Lewis, meant about unfortunate individuals suffering chronic anxiety due to a lack of values. His quote was, “Many people seem not only barraged by an informational overload of conflicting and ill-defined value systems; they also seem increasingly unsure about how to respond. The fortunate among us have strong values, however difficult it may be to articulate or defend those values. The unfortunate suffer chronic anxiety,” (Lewis, 18). I feel that the author meant that some people have values that they do not fully understand. They feel that they should act a certain way or feel a certain way, but they do not have strong reasons to support these values, which then leads to his or her feeling a sense of unease or anxiety. In my original post I wondered whether the author meant that these people completely lack values, but I now feel that Lewis simply meant that without reasons to support our values, we feel lost.

Future:

I believe that my values will remain relatively constant throughout my life. I am sure that the motives behind each value might change as my career unfolds and as I have a family of my own, however, I feel that my personal values are things that will continue to allow me to become successful in each endeavor I choose and will also help me overcome the obstacles still to come. I know that each experience I have in the future will allow me to continue learning about myself and I will always be able to reflect upon these values as a source of support and encouragement.

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