Complementary Values

Your values are closely related to your identity. If you are to create a strong positive identity or self image for yourself, then the values you hold are some of the basic building blocks to that identity.

The Importance of Values

So if, as member of the Counterweights, you are committed to bringing about a change in your life and the world around you, you must understand the importance of having a clear grasp of your individual purpose and identity. Furthermore, one more concept will serve to solidify your identity, and thus also help to define your trajectory. This concept in the form of clarifying your values.

Your values are closely related to your identity. If you are to create a strong positive identity or self image for yourself then the values you hold, are some of the basic building blocks to that identity.

I should note that consistency is key to when it comes to living out your values. No, again you’re not perfect and can do this 100% of the time but remember the goal is to do and believe in the things that will confirm your identity. Living by your values will be a clear step in the right direction towards solidifying your identity. Your values will serve as yet another guiding post in any situation you find yourself in. They seldomly change in the long run. However, how these values are expressed can change throughout your life.

Values are defined as ones judgement of what’s important in life. They are the guiding principles in which our actions and behavior centers around.

Clarifying Your Values

So first step of action to clarifying your values, I need you to imagine that you’re dead or what I truly mean is that I need you to imagine that you are at your funeral. Life is over for you, but your loved ones and those who knew you, on the other hand, are getting up and saying various things about you. Imagine it clearly. What are they saying about you? What themes and principles do they keep repeating when describing your life? What kind of legacy did you leave behind? What kind of person were you? What were you known for?

Most likely when you think about the end of your life, money or wealth or material forms of success are probably not what you care most about. People don’t remember how much money you had, but they remember the impact that you had on their lives. What probably sticks out most to you are the values you lived by and the legacy you will leave behind. The great thing is every moment that you are blessed with life, you don’t have to wait until you are on your deathbed to live out your values, you can be a person of those values at any time starting right now.

Imagine it clearly. What are they saying about you? What themes and principles do they keep repeating when describing your life?

Write down some of the answers to the questions I proposed earlier. For me I want to be known as a person who loved others fully, who spoke truth into others’ lives, whose joy was infectious, and who motivated others to do great things that they once thought were impossible things.

Fulfilling Your Purpose from a Stable Value Basis

Another method of clarifying your values are to write down a list of values that you care about for yourself such as integrity, innovative, compassionate, earnest, joyful and then write them as verbs. This method can be found in Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why. Here he describes taking the values for yourself or your business and associate action words with them such as for innovative- finds, creates and builds new things or for integrity: says the truth and acts in an honorable manner. By writing your values in this way it will give a clear idea on how you are to act in any given situation.

The importance of solidifying these values for yourself is similar to the trend Jim Collins in his book Built to Last finds among visionary companies. He discussed how visionary companies religiously preserve their core ideology and display a drive for progress that enables them to change and progress without compromising cherished core ideals.

Write down a list of values and then make them into verbs

By having a solid foundation of values to live by, it allows you to experiment and find new ways to fulfill their values. For example, if making others laugh kindles your fire inside, if your identity is you are a person who makes others laugh, then you value seeing joy in others. So maybe you start a youtube channel filled with material that gets people to laugh but you could also easily change and experiment with creating comics shared through social media that fulfills the same purpose. Once you are sure of your purpose, identity, and values, it is only a matter of what.

For me in this moment, one of my methods of being a person who motivates others to do great things that they once thought were impossible things is through the creation of the Counterweights, but I am excited to continue to discover new and unique ways to fulfill that value.

Being a Person of Value

But one of most important things for you to keep in mind as you clarify and live by your values is to decide to be a person of value: someone who gives value. Most business or personal development books describe how using our talents and prosperity will provide us with a greater passion and calling. Some of the best business ideas comes out of thinking how can I deliver the most value to a person or group? Or how can I solve a problem that will give people more value? Giving value often revolutionizes someone else’s life in some small or big way. Personal wealth and fulfillment are merely results of giving value.

If you don’t want to listen to me, then listen to Warren Buffet, one of the most prolific and wealthiest investors of this time. He says we should behave like the people we admire and often the people we admire are the ones who have provided the most value to our lives.

It is not a secret that our brains are wired to feel happier when we give. To be people of value, we are to focus on what we can give and benefit to others versus what we can received and be benefited.

Jesus was on the right track when he said, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more.”

Gist is: Generosity begets generosity. If you are going to be apart of the ones to shift the world, start off by committing to be a person of value.

Practical Takeaways

• What kind of person will people know you as at your funeral?

• How can you live the values of that person today?

• Write down a list of values you care about and write them as actions words or phrases.

• How can you use your gifts, talents, and interests to give more value or benefit someone else?