Values – your lighthouse in the fog of life!

What’s important to you? While that may seem like a fairly simple question, how it’s answered can have a profound impact on your life. What got us thinking about this topic is that October 19 is World Values Day. Celebrated annually, World Values Day is designed to increase the awareness and practice of values around the world. The theme for this year is ‘Values Bring Us Together’. With all that’s happening in the world today, that theme, while certainly admirable, seems quite daunting! If ‘values bring us together’, we believe it’s quite worthwhile to explore two questions:  1. What are values? and 2. Why are they important?

That question can be answered by asking another question – What’s most important to you? The answer to that last question often involves values that motivate and guide us in the different areas of our life. For example, personal values might include kindness, honesty, love, and empathy. Work values might include teamwork, engagement, professionalism, and leadership.  Relationship values might include respect, trust, loyalty, and intimacy. Society values might include freedom, environmental issues, giving, and human dignity. These values can sometimes overlap and even change over time.

What John Norman said is so true, “Life is too short and too precious to waste it living out someone else’s values. We must find our own values.” To find your values, ask yourself questions such as: What do I want more of in my life? What do I want less of in my life? What brings me joy? What brings me sadness? These, and other important questions, can help you to identify your values. Knowing your own values helps you understand who you are and what matters most to you. John C. Maxwell says, “Your core values are the deeply held belief that authentically describe your soul.”

Values serve as a compass. They help us with our choices and actions. They form the basis of our identity and beliefs. They influence how we perceive the world and what we consider right or wrong, good, or bad. Our core values shape our worldview and provide meaning to our lives.

Values guide our decision-making. When facing a difficult choice, we refer to our values to help determine the best path forward. Values help us set priorities and decide how to act when principles conflict. We like what J. Loren Norris says about this point, “Core values serve as a lighthouse when the fog of life seems to leave you wandering in circles.” Whether personal or professional decisions, values enable us to make judgments aligned with what we care about most.

Values build self-esteem and confidence. When we are aligned with our values, it gives us an internal sense of harmony and integrity. We have the courage of our convictions and can face challenges with fortitude. Doing what we believe is right, rather than what is convenient or popular, helps us feel proud and self-assured.

Values strengthen relationships. Shared values form a basis for trust, respect, and genuine connection in any relationship. With shared values, we know others will treat us how we hope to be treated. Their actions are predictable and consistent. Clear values allow us to find and bond with those who share similar principles and ideals.

Values create social bonding. When members of a community unite around common values like justice, freedom, and human dignity, it fosters cooperation and civic duty. A society thrives when core beliefs about right behavior are widely held. Values like integrity, respect and accountability promote moral order and social harmony.

We talked about how values serve as our moral compass in life. They define our character and actions, steer our relationships, and create unity in diverse societies. Values give direction and purpose on both an individual and collective level.

Discovering and living your values leads to an integrated life of fulfillment, meaning and impact on the world. As Barbara De Angelis said, “Living with integrity means…behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values.”

What about you? What values are important to you? Remember, the theme for this year’s World Values Day is ‘Values Bring Us Together’. So, what values can each of us practice to bring us closer together as family, friends, neighbors, community and people in this world?

There’s a lot of ‘fog’ in life these days with the many issues that confront us. Our principled core values can act as a lighthouse to help us stay on course and navigate the rough waters we encounter in life. We invite you to see our under 4-minute video on values at  https://Vimeo.com/637316944 .

Chanhassen MN residents, Doug and Lynn Nodland are success coaches and owners of The Balance Center in Excelsior. Contact them at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2023 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.