WHAT ARE VALUES?

	Beliefs about what is most important in work and life
	Principles and ideals that guide behavior
	Expressed through personal qualities and behavior
	Established over time, often via role models and direct teaching
	Some values may change as we grow and mature

Every complex system, whether it’s a factory tool or a computer or a human being, has to be congruent. Its parts have to work together; every action has to support every other action if it’s to work at a peak level. If the parts of a machine try to go in two different directions at once, the machine will be out of sync and could eventually break down.

Human beings are exactly the same. We can learn to produce the most effective behaviors, but if those behaviors don’t support our deepest needs and desires, if those behaviors infringe upon other things that are important to us, then we have internal conflict and we lack the congruency that is necessary for success on a large scale.

If a person is getting one thing but vaguely wanting something else, he won’t be very happy or believe he is fulfilled. If a person achieves a goal but, in order to do so, violates her own belief about what is right or wrong, then turmoil results. In order to truly change, grow, and prosper, we need to become consciously aware of the rules we have for ourselves and others. Otherwise we can have everything and still believe we have nothing. This is the power of values.

What are values? Simply put, they are your own private, personal, and individual beliefs about what is most important to you. Your values are your belief systems about right, wrong, good, and bad.

Our values are the things we all fundamentally need to move toward. If we don’t, we won’t believe we are whole and fulfilled. Belief in congruity, or personal wholeness and unity, comes from the sense that we are fulfilling our values by our present behavior. They even determine what you will move away from. They govern your entire life-style.

They determine how you will respond to any given experience in life. They are much like the executive level in a computer. You can put in any program you like, but whether the computer accepts the program, whether it uses it or not, all depends on how the executive level was programmed by the factory. Values are like the executive level of judgment in the human brain.

From what you wear and what you drive to where you live, your choice of partner(s), or how you raise your children, from what causes you support to what you choose to do for a living, the impact of your values is endless. They are the base that defines your responses to any given situation in life. They are the ultimate key to understanding and predicting your own behaviors as well as the behaviors of others - the master key to unleashing the magic within.

Values motivate each of us but are intangible. They are not something we do or have. Money is not a value, although the things you might do with money could be considered values: fun, creativity, peace of mind, service to others. Travel is not a value. Gardening is not a value. But both are examples of cherished activities that honor certain values, such as adventure, learning, nature, spirituality.

And yet, though values are intangible, they are not invisible to others. You can walk into a room of strangers and get a sense of what people value by what they wear, how they stand in the room, how they interact with others, and with whom they interact. You know something about their values just by their presence in the room. You can sense the values in the room: power, friendship/connection, independence, and more.

Probably fewer than ten people out of one hundred have really examined their lives and the values that drive day-to-day behavior. A value is a thing or condition that you consistently act on to get or to keep. Thus, the more consistently and energetically you commit your time or money to something, the more you apparently value it. This means that you can get a pretty clear idea of your values by studying your calendar and your checkbook.

Living your values means living "awake." The ability to clarify your values and to commit energies toward them means having a definite approach to a defined quality of life. How many people do you know who drift with their life circumstances, accepting less than life has to offer and taking no risks to create a definite approach to life? How long has it been since you asked yourself, "What do I really want out of life?" "How am I spending my precious time currency?" "What are my values?"