Values & God

Values in life are something that are extremely important to have in my life. A value is something that a person considers to be important to themselves. Financial values vary from person to person. Not everybody wants the same lifestyle. Some people dream of having expensive cars, spacious homes and many possessions. Others search for the simple life, uncluttered by material goods. Our values influence the way we earn, spend, save, invest and spend money. Personal values are influenced by family and friends, by television and movies, and by what attracts us in the marketplace. For example, you may want to go to college, yet you want to earn money to buy a new car. If you cannot afford both, you must make a choice.

A goal is a preferred future condition. It is more than a hope.Goals help you to get more of what you want out of life. They represent the ideal state to which you aspire, guiding all your actions towards this aspired state.

What do you need to set goals? You need to know who you are (identity), your values, goals that you want to achieve, an action plan to achieve these goals, what motivates you, flexibility and self-discipline.

Knowing who you are will keep you focused as you set priorities and accomplish challenges in your personal and professional lives. When you engage in self-reflection, it is helpful to avoid defining yourself in terms of external trappings, others' expectations or stereotypes.

Establishing your values will help you to set goals in priority. Without values, all goals will be important, making it difficult for you to decide which should take precedence.

Goals need to be specific. They should have a defined objective and deadline that allow you to assess your progress. Goals need to be challenging but realistic. Set intermediate short-term goals that bring you closer to your ultimate goals.

Keep the vision of your goals clear and compelling by using visual representations like tree diagrams and mind maps, which will allow you to create goals into organized patterns.

Personal motivation and stamina help to ensure that we are on track with regards to our goal achievements. What motivates you will depend on the consequences of your actions- that is, you will be motivated to select a particular task if it gives you more positive rewards than the other, like enhanced sense of pride and or accomplishment.

Being flexible means being able to reframe our setbacks in goal achievement as challenges. It also means looking for alternatives and making them work for us.

Self-discipline is about doing what needs to be done rather than what you would like to do. To be more disciplined, you need to take responsibility for yourself managing your own life and fulfilling the goals that you have set out.

Achieving goals is a constant process, never a destination in itself. Now that you have arrived at your outcome, it’s time to set another objective. However, schedule a period of rest and allow yourself to celebrate your successes; then start on your journey again.

Our goals are based on our values. Since we have a limited amount of money, we choose those things we value most. Saving part of current income to purchase a car is taking action to reach a goal.

People often use money to gain security, power, freedom, love and acceptance. If taken to extreme, such motivations will produce an unbalanced lifestyle. For example, the search for power can turn to greed which, in turn, can foster unethical behavior in the marketplace.

Something like wealth or money is a goal while drive, ambition, spirituality are core values. Sometimes it is hard to define core values and separate them from goals. Goal is something to be achieved. A value takes you to that goal. Principles are a choice and ranking of values that will determine ones legacy.

Values are not principles. A principle, such as gravity and honesty is cross cultural. It doesn't change over time. It doesn't change because someone disagrees with it. Values do change, depending upon the individual. Some people value drugs. Some value diamonds. Some value music.

Core values are those that you live by. If you value family, or money most and those values are at your core, then your life reflects those values. Someone who values truth, doesn't lie. Someone who has money as a core value spends more time making money than with his family, for example. When your values are in alignment with principles, you find truth. Life is clear and makes sense. If you value money more than truth and lie to get money, the personal consequences become clear soon enough.

As far as we know, no human made up the principle of gravity. If we break the law of gravity, we end up injured. Gravity never takes a beating. The same is true of truth.