Personal Values, The Power of Personal Values, List, Listing of

What is a Value?

Values are psychological objects. Although we cannot see or touch them, they are every bit as real as any physical object. People may dedicate their entire lives or even give up their lives to pursue their values, as so many loyal patriots have done fighting for values of freedom, equality and human rights during the past two centuries.

We all have values that determine our decisions and guide our lives. Those who value their individuality take responsibility, are self-reliant and act with self-respect. Those who value truthfulness cannot bring themselves to tell a lie. Those who value family or friendship sacrifice their personal interests for the good of others. Those who value goodness cannot bring themselves to do something they know is wrong. We express values in our relations with other people when we are loyal, reliable, honest, generous, trusting, trustworthy, feel a sense of responsibility for family, friends, co-workers, our organization, community or country. On a more physical level, we may place great value on cleanliness, punctuality, orderliness, accuracy, quality, and physical perfection in whatever we do.

Values, Accomplishment, and our Psychological Energies

Accomplishment in life depends not only on physical energy, but even more on the intensity of psychological energy we are able to bring to our action. Interest, commitment, determination, passion, drive, enthusiasm are some of the ways in which we characterize the intensity of our psychological energy. It turns out that values direct our psychological energies for accomplishment. The scholar with a passion for accuracy will expend enormous energy in the search for facts and the effort to impartially verify them. Once he does so, his work will be relied upon by others and gain a reputation for its veracity. The gymnast or figure skater with a passion for perfection will continue to practice throughout her career to hone her skills, moved by the quest for the value of perfection – that score of perfect 10. The artist, musician, engineer, the chef, the flight attendant, the accountant are all guided by values in the execution of their work and the results they achieve are directly related to the level of values they attain. Thus, we see that Values determine the intensity and flow of our psychological energies.

In the end, the quality of the values we embrace and the intensity of our commitment to them determines the level of our accomplishment in life.

Values as the Highest Psychological Form for Accomplishment

We can see a continuum of psychological forms from data to values.

Data are mental facts derived from sense observation.
Information is data organized by the physical mind into meaningful relationships.
Thoughts are specific conclusions or observations drawn from the information.
Ideas are generalized conceptions derived from specific thoughts.
Opinions are thoughts which the mind endorses and the ego identifies as its own.
Beliefs are ideas which the mind endorses and the mental ego identifies with as true for its life.
Attitudes are opinions endorsed and energized by the vital ego.
Values are idealized conceptions that are endorsed by the personality.

In terms of accomplishment, thoughts are mental forms of energy which do not necessarily lead to action. Ideas carry the energy of mental understanding. Opinions carry the force of mental conviction. Attitudes carry the vital force of our emotional endorsement. Values carry the power of psychological commitment and determination. Values issue from a deeper or higher center of motivation in our personalities and therefore carry far greater power than our opinions and attitudes.

Origin of Values - from Life and from Spirit

From below, society acquires values through a long process of trial and error experimentation with various approaches to life. Over years and centuries, the collective comes to recognize that certain principles or guidelines are essential for the survival or vital for the growth of the individual and the community. They learn by experience to value these essential principles and pass them on to future generations as cultural guidelines for action. They discover that cleanliness is essential for heath. Punctuality and regularity of action are essential for success in agriculture. Honesty and truthfulness are essential in trade. Loyalty and patriotism are essential for the integrity and defense of the community. Responsibility, generosity and self-sacrifice are the bedrocks of the family.

From above, enlightened individuals directly experienced higher states of spiritual consciousness and perceived self-existent truths of the spiritual reality that manifested the universe. They discovered the essence of what we call God, Spirit or Divinity expresses itself as fundamental spiritual values in the universe such as Freedom, Peace, Truth, Unity, Goodness, Harmony, Beauty, Love, Joy, and Self-Giving. They recognized that the more you strive to live by these values, the higher you rise in consciousness and the more the higher spiritual consciousness enters your being and expresses in your life. The wise perceived that the values derived from life experience are derivative truths and lower expressions of these same higher spiritual values and stepping stones on the ascending stair of evolution. E.g. the human value of tolerance can be said to be a reflection and melding of the spiritual values of Freedom, Goodness, and Harmony; and the value of honesty is honesty is a reflection of the spiritual value of Truth.