Life is full of decisions. Everyday we make a ton of choices and and these choices team up over time to create our current circumstances. As we go through our life’s journey we all need to form a compass to guide our path. This direction can be found in our values. Our values determine who we are, who we want to be and who we will become. Promising values consist of actions that if we take in an unlimited manner they won’t cause us any harm. Take the time to find words that will guide your steps. Overtime as you grow you will add more words into the mix. These words will form the lines that you don’t cross, when you find yourself in a conflicting situation, you’ll find peace knowing that you chose the path that best represented you.
The first step in defining your values is figuring out who you are and what’s important to you. Although I’m an advocate of all final decisions being made through logical reasoning, acknowledging and understanding your emotions is the starting point to finding yourself. Your perception of who you are combined with what you want others to see/describe you as, will tell the story of who you should strive to become. When I asked myself what has consumed me the most over the years and what I wanted others to see me as, I came up with the following words:
Progression – In addition to planning and building systems I will take constant action and make decisions that will advance my life
Empathy – I always put myself in other’s shoes and attempt to find outcomes that create win/win situations.
Faith – Worrying is pointless. In my toughest of times when I couldn’t see a way, God made a way. I won’t waste time worrying, I will build a plan and trust the process.
Truth with Self – Always recognize your feelings as they are the windows to who your are. You may not always choose to expose your truth to others, but you won’t have a choice if you don’t know what that truth is.
Freedom – I will be unapologetically me. I will continue to strive to live a life in which this is feasible at all times.
Integrity – I will be a man that walks in a set a strong values.
These words will come up often in my writing of life lessons as they are the starting point of who I am and what I wish to represent. Come up with a clear set of values and you’ll never be lost.