Prompted: Values
Prompted: Values
Values are the measuring stick used to steer our lives towards meaning and purpose.
“Values” can be frustratingly abstract and difficult to integrate into our everyday life. I hope this week’s newsletter provides a useful framework to think about what’s important to you and how values can inform where you invest your time.
As always, thanks for reading!
Kevin
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When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.
- Roy Disney
Values
For most of our lives, we have very specific instructions and expectations for doing things well. In school, we have rubrics that tell us exactly what we need to do in order to receive a good grade. At work, we have specific responsibilities and metrics that need to be fulfilled.
Areas of life without concrete expectations are the most difficult. There are no universal rules for eating well, exercising, or the multitude of choices we’re faced with in our free time. We know how to get an A on a project but how do we live a good life? How do we choose between a meaningful dinner with friends and a lucrative business opportunity?
Without any personal guidelines in place, we revert to using the tried and true method of pursuing what we think other people value.
We see that others are praised for making lots of money, getting a “good job”, and staying healthy, so we strive to do the same things. Going out to bars and expensive vacations are similarly idolized and subconsciously become our rubric for the good life.
All that said, following along with the general consensus is actually not a bad strategy. We tend to value things that generally enrich our lives and make us happier and healthier.
However, if we don’t uncover our own guidelines for our lives, we will inevitably lack fulfillment.
We can check all of the boxes on the path to a great life, but if we’re only putting in all of the hard work in an effort to complete what someone else thinks is important, we won’t feel any pride when we reach those milestones.
Think of a bright-eyed college student making constant sacrifices to become a doctor to appease their parents only to realize all they accomplished was checking a box on someone else’s list.
While societal norms can serve as helpful guidelines for directing our lives, living a life filled with purpose and fulfillment requires clarifying our own guidelines for our lives: our values.
We use them as a tool to evaluate what’s important based on individual priorities instead of external sentiment. Uncovering and refining our values is hard work, but when we work towards objectives that align with our values, feelings of purpose and fulfillment replace the hollow pursuit of chasing what other people deem important.
Prompts
What are the 7 most important areas of my life? On a scale of 1-10, how would I rate myself in each of those areas?
Thinking of the activity where I invest the most time and energy, am I pursuing an end that is congruent with my values, or am I chasing something else?
For each role in my life (i.e. husband, wife, sister, brother, son, daughter, father, mother, lawyer, salesperson, entrepreneur, etc.) write one sentence to express what my values are in this area of life.
Deep Dive
How to Know Who You Really Are - Mark Manson
Just the introduction of this post provides some great insight into the role our values play. It also goes deeper to help readers identify their own values and “live the good life”.
Stop Chasing Success. Seek Significance. - Joshua Becker
A quick read that makes the minimalist’s argument for guiding our life with our internal values instead of external measures of success.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin
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