A Values Driven Life

What are your values?  What is your personal value system?  Each one of us values things.  It can be seen in the way we behave, how we spend our time, what we choose to participate in and be a part of, and how we interact with others and the world around us.  Values anchor us and define who we are.  Establishing strong values makes us better more successful and satisfied people. 

Values are customs or ideals that we choose to regard and give worth or importance to.  If you feel your personal values are unclear, think about it for a moment, what do you personally value?  How do you spend your time, energy, money, thoughts?  What is important to you, what can you not live without, what do you live for?  As we write down our values we can begin to see if we value the right things. 

Sometimes our current values and what we want or hope to be our values are different.  Perhaps I may say I value family but while doing an honest self-assessment I notice I rarely spend time with my family or make sacrifices and adjustments in my schedule in order to be with them more.  As I realize this I can begin to question whether I really value family all that much.  Another example may be that I believe I value kindness but if while doing a self-assessment I realize I rarely go out of my way to be kind to others and that last week in the airport I didn’t let a frantic fellow traveler pass me in the security line because I felt it was their own fault for being late I may wonder if this is a true value of mine.  What we say our values are and what we actually value can be very different—and this can be seen in our daily choices and actions. 

Though not easy, changing what we value can happen.  The first step is recognizing that what we currently value is different than what we want to value.  Once we come to terms with this fact we can begin to make adjustments in our life that will help us get our values back in place.  If I truly want kindness to be part of my values system the next time I see a frantic fellow traveler I may willingly offer my place in the security line.  Or if I want family to be on top of my value system I may decide to turn my ipad off at night in order to spend real quality time with them. 

Identifying and living a values based life is important to successful leaders and people.  As we evaluate what we currently value and determine how we can place those values we want at the top, we will find greater satisfaction and success in life.