I’ve been thinking about values lately. “Values” is one of those words that I heard for many years but could never get a handle on. I could not really define it, and it seemed to mean a bunch of things and once; it seemed vague, and confused with other words like beliefs and opinions. Values, to me, seemed laden with “pie in the sky” optimism and were somewhat disconnected from reality, and tainted with hypocrisy. I was confused. I knew the word was important, but why and how? The word was used a lot in rhetoric by politicians, parents, bosses, and preachers and talking heads in media, obviously using it to by design to persuade, chastise, manipulate, motivate and inspire. Still, I couldn’t get a handle on it.
Then, one day, I realized that I was over thinking this. I found a handle that I could grab onto and make sense of this freighted word. Simply put, values were tools for making decisions. For example, let’s say I value health. When faced with a the choice between rotten food and fresh food, I would choose the fresh food. Simple! If I value friendship, decisions I will make make regarding the treatment of particular people is now clear. Values are the hard pivot point we use to make decisions! This made sense to me. Suddenly, I could see what my values were and those of others through the decisions made! The fog was lifted and I could see the reality and the utility of values, the nonsense vanished.
My values were not now laid bare through the lens of decisions I had made and am making. Through this “decision making” lens I could not obfuscate or pretend what my values were. They were obvious and revealed by the things I decided to do and not do, not necessarily pretty, but REAL and grounded in honest reality. And, they had purpose, period. I had found my handle, and could also now perceive the values of people around me.
Suddenly, I could understand the utility of adopting values that would help me to make better decisions. After all I, like all people, suffer from making poor decisions. So, if I want to make better decisions and reduce suffering and increase success, then the natural place to focus on is the pivot point, that fulcrum of values.
I made a decision to make the 365 Commitment. What prompted this decision? I value competence and accomplishment and self-improvement, and realized that in many ways I was incompetent at reaching my goals. The 365 Commitment offers a clear and true process for increasing my capacity to reach goals, so I made the decision to do it!
What decisions are you making and why? They reveal your values, and you can choose to adopt new one’s if you want to. Getting honest about bad decisions will help root out values that are not helping and discover those that will. What will you decide? Making the 365 Commitment is a decision that reveals values anyone can be proud of.
Ben Wagner (122)
Member The 365 Commitment
