I always wondered what the people I consider role models have in common.
It wasn’t until recently that I actually sat down and questioned what my top three role models had in common. I came to the conclusion that they all had and followed one thing everyone should be aware of in their lives — values.
Values can look different from person to person. One person may value time more than the person sitting next to them or someone may value luxury more than I do.
If something is of value, it means that it has “relative worth, utility, or importance”, and if something is important or significant to you, your life naturally molds itself to fit that value.
I noticed that the people I admire have clear and defined values. The way they act clearly reflects what they believe to be important, what they preach clearly highlights their ethics and, most importantly, the way they treat other people reveals the relationship of their values to their character.
After discovering this, I was forced to reflect and consider what my core values were. I used different methods such as using the template provided by The Minimalists where you define your values in four different categories: foundational, structural, surface and imaginary values, an exercise provided by Jay Shetty in his book “Think like a Monk” where you were encouraged to reflect on the top three best and worst decisions you made in your life and weed out the values buried in them, and I reviewed an exercise I did back in 2019 from “Best Self” by Mike Bayer where I brainstormed and narrowed down my top 5 values.
From these exercises, I was able to recognize recurring themes and define what I value the most. Even if these values evolve as I get older, at least I have a foundation to build from.
As explained by Jay Shetty in “Think like a Monk”, with values you “have directions that point you toward the people and actions and habits that are best for you… without them we are swept away by distractions.” So, I think it is safe to say values can be seen as a superpower if harnessed by establishing and living by them.
With taking the time to understand our personal values, we can intentionally guide our actions in the present to ultimately help us live a life of meaning.
If you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear from you in the comments section. If you want to read more on intentional living, visit my minimalism page.
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