Authenticity Begins with Values

Hello welcome to the journey to Authenticity!

This blog and all others in this series are small steps you can take each week to begin to move into a more authentic life. If at any time you feel you need more assistance or find you would like to move further faster along on this journey I am available for coaching. My contact information is in the sidebar. 

Beliefs and Values

Each person conducts their lives based on their inner foundation. This foundation is made up of our beliefs and subconscious speech. We also conform to others beliefs and often conform to society's perimeters. Living an authentic life starts with examining our own belief system and focusing on what our inner foundation is and living our lives based on those things and excluding everything else.

In this post we are going to examine our values. 

Values Defined

1. 
   

   a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.

   "they internalize their parents' rules and values"

   
   

   synonyms:

   principles, ethics, moral code, morals, standards, code of behavior "society's values are passed on to us as children"

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Based on this definition values are the things we think are most important. I would say the things we think are most important on a personal and interactive level. What is important to you as you look at yourself and what kind of person you want to be. Beyond yourself and the person you want to be; what is important to you in how you interact with other people?

What do you value?

Our lives are founded on a code of behavior defined by what we hold as important. These standards may be:

• Honesty
• Love
• Justice
• Openness
• Trustworthiness
• Volunteering
• Faithfulness
• Service
• Mercy
• Humility

The list is endless. However, we all have between eight and ten we consistently consider important. I note this because the closer we get to the tenth value on the list the less likely we are to place primary importance on it. Examining our values gives us the opportunity to thoroughly consider just which areas we think of as most important.

Here is your first exercise:

Write down your top ten values. Then over the course of the next week write down why this value is important to you. Try to limit your why's to two sentences. Clarity is important in this process. If you need more than two sentences you are not truly clear on why this value is important. Here is an example.

Mercy is important to me. Because I think most people do the best they can, where they are. Mercy gives people a do over. 

I suggest you get yourself an Authenticity Journal where you can write your thoughts down and go back to them as needed. You are welcome to comment and discuss your thoughts here. If you feel stuck or just would like feedback from what others who are also on this journey sharing your comments can only help. If you submit your email above you will get new post delivered to your email automatically.

Remember this journey is all about you living your life based on what you believe and think. No one can do this for you and the experience will prepare you to give your children the tools they need to live authentic lives. I hope you enjoy the journey. All the best!

Believe in Parenting