40+FAB Blog
What are your real values?
December 21, 2019 - 40+FAB Blog
It is great to have values that guide how we live and respond to others in life. Values should be simple and beneficial, not only for ourselves, but for the sake of others. Our values are the things that we hold dear at the very core of our being.
Principles on the other hand are rules or beliefs that govern our actions. They are firmly formed and based on our true values. Values come to life in our principles.
If one has a value of honesty for instance, then their principles could be never to tell a lie even if it means enduring trouble for it.
Saying you have a certain set of values yet operating by principles that contradict those values seems to be quite common these days. How often do people turn a blind eye to their principles when someone who contradicts their values shows up to favour them, especially economically. People are still being propositioned like in the movie Indecent Proposal. How one responds in such situations really shows what their true values are.
Values will be tested in tempting situations inciting us to hate where we claim love, to hoard where we claim generosity, to be closed minded where we claim knowledge, to be frivolous where we claim sobriety and so on.
Don’t be too quick to shout about what you say your values are especially when they have not been tested. Whatever stands up to your greatest temptations are your real values.