Values

Consultants in any vertical of business get paid humungous amounts just because they supposedly add “value” to businesses they work with. But what exactly does this word mean, especially in the world of personal development?

In an effort to clarify this for myself, you, my reader and to add some “value” to both our lives (pun intended), I want to take a stab at it.

The only way to be truly happy is to live in accordance with nature.

– Diogenes of Sinope

I once had a very interesting conversation with my professor during my post graduate course regarding values. We were discussing Universal Human values, and the class gave me such an amazing perspective, which I remember to this day.

Rizvi sir, as we fondly call him, asked me, “How would you define universal human values?”.

After pausing for almost a minute, I responded: “Universal human values are values that apply to human beings irrespective of who or where a person is from. For example: killing someone is immoral is a universal value”.

I thought I would be applauded for responding correctly. The answer sounded absolutely bulletproof in my head. However, Rizvi sir had a very interesting comeback.

“Then how would you differentiate universal human values from law?”

I was completely stumped. I was hoping everyone in class had something better to do than listening to this dialogue.

Well, he was kind enough to not let me stir in defeat. He started his explanation by saying my response was close to correct, but not quite.

“Universal Human Values are values that have been chosen by humankind irrespective of who or where a person is from, in an attempt to further harmony, empathy, and cooperation in the global society”.

There isn’t much of a difference between the two statements. But there is a difference. In my definition, values apply to everyone. However, in sir’s definition, values are chosen. And that to me was a real revelation.

Now I am not going to even pretend to be knowledgeable enough to even fiddle with a concept which has “universal” in front of it. However, this is a philosophy/psychology blog and most of my articles are meant to help my readers think, look inwards and assess things for themselves.

Carrying that endeavour forward, let’s unpack this a little, shall we?

Defining Values

“Value” is probably one of the most abstract concepts I have ever come across in my life. Any facet of life we can think of, this word has a very prominent place, and yet, explaining the meaning of this word in all of those, I feel is probably one of the hardest undertakings one can take.

With the aim to understand this concept better, let’s start off with a very basic question: what is something that is valuable to you?

Some would say things like their cell phone, their laptop, their car, their house and so on. Then there would be people who would say their family, their friends, their network etc. There would also be people who would place value on their job, their business, their hobbies etc.

However, this is one place where I feel we shouldn’t dig deeper than we feel the need to, to actually understand the concept to its core. Something or someone is valuable, if you think that something or someone is important. Now that importance could be physical, mental, emotional, financial or any other “-ial” that comes to mind.

Your values define you. Your values shape your decisions, and consequently shape your life.

And this is where I want to highlight the power of the revelation I had in class around 4 years ago.

We choose our values, and our values shape our lives.
Resultantly, we choose the shape of our lives.

This is an extremely powerful statement. Now the question that arises here, and one I ask myself regularly is whether the values I am living by have been selected intentionally, or unintentionally.

At some level, I think that is all there is to life. To constantly select or reject what we want to do. Isn’t it? That is a very, very deep conversation, I think. But today, I’ll end with my daunting question, like most other instances.

At some level, if we all understand that values shape our lives, why don’t all of us live the lives of our dreams?

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂