Had a question come up recently. What is all this Success Values stuff about? What do values have to do with your success? I suppose that’s a valid question, and it’s probably been answered before on the blog here. But for the benefit of our ever-expanding readership, here’s another stab at explaining what we’re doing here.
Everyone has values. Everyone. Values are simply what you hold to be most important in your life. The things, concepts, habits, behaviors, even people that define what are your priorities and the boundaries of what’s acceptable for you. For some people these values are very self-centered. For others they are very other-centered. Others still are focused on avoiding conflict or finding comfort, the path of least resistance or some other way of living.
We tend to organize our lives according to our values, whether we know it or not. Often we don’t even know consciously what our values are because we haven’t bothered to examine them. When this happens, we often fall into bad habits that will cause us to periodically violate our values, real or perceived. At that point we tend to either make significant changes or sink into depression, anger or a rut.
It’s true that almost no one can live out our values 100% of the time, especially if you don’t really know what they are.
It’s also true that certain values when lived out will encourage certain results. Some values lead to selfishness, sloth, jealousy and hatred. Others lead to service to others, providing value and making the world a better place.
It’s these latter values that we’re studying and teaching as many people as possible about.
You see, your values aren’t permanent. You decide what they are. You can change them too. If you realize your values are having a negative impact on your life, change the bad ones. Adopt new, better values and live them. You will see your life change. You will move closer to Success.
