3 tips for focusing on your values, vision & visible results
How can you live your values? How can you be true to yourself? How can you live in what the existentialists call ‘good faith’? One approach is to clarify your values, translate these into a clear vision and deliver visible results. Sounds simple in theory, but it can be harder in practice. Let’s explore how you can make this happen.
* You can clarify your values.
Start by tackling the exercise on this theme. Brainstorm the values you believe-in, then put these in order of priority. One person wrote: “The values I believe in are: a) To encourage people; b) To care for the environment; c) To make beautiful things.” Certainly they realised this sounded like standing for ‘motherhood and apple pie’, but the real test was how to follow these ethics in their daily life. So start by completing the following exercise. The tough part comes later.
The values I believe in are:
*
*
*
* You can translate your values into a clear vision.
Take each of the values in turn and convert each one into a tangible vision. Ask yourself: “How can I express this value in my life and work? What might it look like in practice? What is the vision?” The person said:
“The toughest value to follow was ‘caring for the environment’. Starting with my daily habits, I switched the electricity account to a renewable energy provider; invested in solar panelling; bought local produce; stopped buying fruit flown from long distances and travelled more by train, rather than by car. There is much more to do, but I feel more in tune with my values.”
Try tackling the following exercise. Focus on one of your values and translate it into a clear vision. If you wish, you can then follow a similar process with each of your values.
The specific value I want to focus on is:
*
Start by tackling the exercise on this theme. Brainstorm the values you believe-in, then put these in order of priority. One person wrote: “The values I believe in are: a) To encourage people; b) To care for the environment; c) To make beautiful things.” Certainly they realised this sounded like standing for ‘motherhood and apple pie’, but the real test was how to follow these ethics in their daily life. So start by completing the following exercise. The tough part comes later.
The values I believe in are:
*
*
*
* You can translate your values into a clear vision.
Take each of the values in turn and convert each one into a tangible vision. Ask yourself: “How can I express this value in my life and work? What might it look like in practice? What is the vision?” The person said:
“The toughest value to follow was ‘caring for the environment’. Starting with my daily habits, I switched the electricity account to a renewable energy provider; invested in solar panelling; bought local produce; stopped buying fruit flown from long distances and travelled more by train, rather than by car. There is much more to do, but I feel more in tune with my values.”
Try tackling the following exercise. Focus on one of your values and translate it into a clear vision. If you wish, you can then follow a similar process with each of your values.
The specific value I want to focus on is:
*
The specific things I can do to translate this value into a clear vision are:
*
*
*
* You can deliver visible results.
“A value is not a value until it is lived.” we are told. So how can you ‘live in good faith’? The true test comes from what people do, not what they say. Samuel and Pearl Oliner studied people who followed their altruistic values to rescue Jews during the Second World War. Having a strong base of ethics and empathy, the ‘rescuers’ saw it as natural for them to help other human beings. They said things like:
“I was always filled with love for everyone, for every creature, for things. I am fused into every object. For me everything is alive … I sensed I had in front of me human beings that were hunted down like wild animals. This aroused a feeling of brotherhood and a desire to help … We had to help these people in order to save them, not because they were Jews, but because they were persecuted human beings who needed help.”
Few of us will be tested to that degree: so how can you follow your beliefs in the future? Looking at the value you chose to convert into a clear vision, try completing the final exercise.
The specific things I can do to translate this vision into visible results are:
*
*
*
Some people are true to their values. Some try to justify what they are doing, even though it is against their values. Every day is an opportunity for each of us to live in good faith.
*
*
*
* You can deliver visible results.
“A value is not a value until it is lived.” we are told. So how can you ‘live in good faith’? The true test comes from what people do, not what they say. Samuel and Pearl Oliner studied people who followed their altruistic values to rescue Jews during the Second World War. Having a strong base of ethics and empathy, the ‘rescuers’ saw it as natural for them to help other human beings. They said things like:
“I was always filled with love for everyone, for every creature, for things. I am fused into every object. For me everything is alive … I sensed I had in front of me human beings that were hunted down like wild animals. This aroused a feeling of brotherhood and a desire to help … We had to help these people in order to save them, not because they were Jews, but because they were persecuted human beings who needed help.”
Few of us will be tested to that degree: so how can you follow your beliefs in the future? Looking at the value you chose to convert into a clear vision, try completing the final exercise.
The specific things I can do to translate this vision into visible results are:
*
*
*
Some people are true to their values. Some try to justify what they are doing, even though it is against their values. Every day is an opportunity for each of us to live in good faith.
posted by Mike Pegg at
14:45
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