Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Part I of this two-part series Artem Anisimov Womens Jersey , you learned a step-by-step process for eliciting and prioritizing your personal values. Now in Part II, we'll explore how to live with integrity to your values, using them to make decisions and take action.
Using Your Values to Make Decisions
Once you know and understand your personal values, you can consult them whenever you need to make a key decision. Should you accept the new job you've been offered? Should you pursue a new relationship now? How much time should you spend with your family? These can be tough decisions without a clear right or wrong answer. You may choose to answer them differently at different points in your life.
Your values list provides a shortcut for making these decisions intelligently. When you're confronted with such a decision, you pull out your list and check the prioritization of values. Then ask yourself Chris Kunitz Womens Jersey , "What would a person with these values choose to do in this situation?" It's usually the prioritization of your values that will answer the question.
For example, if you're offered a job promotion that will shift your work weeks from 40 hours to 60 hours but double your salary, should you take it? If values like success and achievement are at the top of your list, you'll probably say yes. If freedom and family are at the top, you'll likely decline the promotion. By clarifying your values Alex DeBrincat Womens Jersey , you've already done the hard thinking required to discover what's most important to you. So now when you're confronted with such decisions, you're able to reduce them to a values comparison, and the final decision falls into place. If the promotion equates to increased success but reduced peace in your mind, then you can compare those values to learn whether it's a good idea or not. Your goal is to increase your fulfillment of your highest values without sacrificing them to lower values.
Remember that this is only one of many paradigms for making decisions. As such it has limitations, but you should find that it brings clarity to your decision-making.
Achieving Alignment
Whenever your values shift Brent Seabrook Womens Jersey , you may find it necessary to realign the various parts of your life to restore them to a state of harmony with your values. If success is your #1 personal value, then it will be important for you to experience it in abundance. Success for you may equate to a successful career, a high income, a fulfilling relationship, and a healthy body. Ask yourself what parts of your life are misaligned with your top values Patrick Kane Womens Jersey , and consider how to bring them into full alignment.
When you notice a misalignment between your reality and your values, you have two basic options to restore alignment.
First, you can adapt the situation to restore alignment. So if health is your top value, and you realize you've been keeping too much junk food in your house, you can modify your kitchen to fit your new health value Corey Crawford Womens Jersey , phasing out the junk and restocking with healthier choices.
Secondly, you can remove yourself from the situation and start fresh to create alignment from scratch. If you find yourself in a relationship where you definitely want to have children and your boyfriend or girlfriend definitely doesn't want children, you can choose to break up and seek out a more compatible relationship.
So whenever you encounter a misalignment, you can either adapt the circumstances to restore alignment, or you can remove yourself from the situation and start fresh.
I don't recommend the third alternative of living with the misalignment if you cannot adapt to it. This would mean living without integrity to your values. An example would be choosing to remain in an abusive relationship out of misplaced loyalty. Living with misalignment for too long often results in serious negative consequences.
Whenever your values change Jonathan Toews Womens Jersey , it's important to review the various areas of your life to make sure they're properly aligned with the kind of person you believe you are. If you're in a relationship, is it compatible with your values? If you work for a company, are its perceived values compatible with yours? If there's a misalignment, then it's time to make changes either by adapting or by getting out.
Adapting Your Values
At some point you'll encounter a situation that forces you to reassess your values. Maybe a close friend dies, a major illness hits you Duncan Keith Womens Jersey , or you begin a new relationship, and consequently, you gain a new perspective on what's truly most important to you. This is to be expected as you grow older and have new experiences.
Suddenly your values list doesn't seem to be an accurate representation of the real you. You've changed too much. So it's time to reassess your values and create a new values list, following the process in Living Your Values, Part I.
Depending on how fast-paced your life is and how much change you experience Authentic Gustav Forsling Jersey , you may need to update your values every few months, or they may go relatively unchanged for years.
The Ultimate Alignment
The ultimate goal of living your values is to eventually bring them into alignment with universal principles. As you experience living with different sets of values, you'll learn what's truly important to you. Your values may shift a great deal at first as you set new goals and have new experiences, but eventually they will start to converge.
Your values are your current estimations of truth. They represent your answer to the question of how to live. Some sets of values will fail to produce the results you want. They may leave you feeling restless and unfulfilled. Other sets of values bring you closer to a feeling of congruence. When you act with integrity to values that are themselves aligned with universal principles, you get the best possible results.