What's Your Core Values? I Include Mine

[Kak]

I am glad you brought up Ayn Rand. One really cannot discuss core values intellegibly and intelligently without having read Atlas Shrugged and having understood it. It's actually a thesis on core values. People pursue certain values and the story is logically extrapolated to where those values lead them. Defining personal happiness as the core value is a start in the right direction, but it is not a list of core values, sorry. Core values should not be subject to randon or seasonal changes. By definition, they are core values.

Excellent post. Highly recommended book.

 

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[Supercar]

When qualifying core values one has to think big. As big as possible. I would ask a qualifying question: Would the life be worth living without X? Is freedom more important than physical health? Is having physical health more important than mental clarity? Is the life of a loved one more important that your wealth? Can you live happily without X if you have a plenty of Y?

 

[GuestUser112]

Here's a question: how many core values can somebody have before they cease to be 'core values' and become merely 'values'? By definition, the word 'core' implies singularity. You can have integrity and honesty listed as your core values, but that is being facetious, because integrity is impossible without total honesty. You can list personal happiness and integrity as core values, but that also is facetious, as true, sustainable happiness is impossible without integrity.

Personal happiness is THE core value. That's the whole point of Atlas Shrugged. The heroes: John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Ragnar Danneskold, and Francisco D'anconia all share the one trait that their core value is their own personal happiness. They hold their own personal happiness to a high standard because it IS their core value, and from that stems a high standard for everything they do. They could not be happy if they did not produce to the highest extent of their ability, so that's what they do. They also could not be happy if they held any other values in place of their core value (personal happiness). This is where Henry Rearden comes in, as the example of the man who puts mistaken values (charity, kindness) in place of the proper core value, which is, again, personal happiness, and then ruins himself trying to please other people. Which is why he's so goddamn miserable all the time, and has to have dirty degrading sex with his horrible wife, because he hates himself for making himself unhappy. Nobody who truly loves themselves will have sex with somebody they despise. So where it seems like Henry Rearden has been maintaining his 'integrity', he actually ruined it the second he threw 'personal happiness' out the window.

So, is life worth living without personal happiness? No. Does personal happiness trump all other values for any individual? I would say so.

 

[Kak]

Could one argue that your core values are the individual units of your personal happiness? I think so.

Some things, though you may consider them core values, may be poorly executed... I mentioned the relationship I was in for 6 years... I knew it wasn't best for me... My core values were definately violated, that doesn't mean they were not in place. I believe things have a way of correcting themselves if you hold true to these values which I intend to do from this point forward.

People are not perfect. That's why we have lists of core values like this though... So we work our asses off to achieve what we believe is our own personal best.

 

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[Kak]

By the way, I am loving this thread... This is about who you want to be as a person. I honestly can't think of anything more important to nail down than this right here.

 

[Journey2Million$]

* Freedom - I cannot stand being controlled, bossed, or forced to do things. That's why I don't work for other people and also why I'm never going to get married. I don't want a wife controlling everything or having the power to financially ruin my life. I do whatever I want whenever I want.

* Money - money can buy you almost everything, so it's hugely important. And money does make me happy. It makes me very happy. It looks to me that it makes a lot of other people happy too.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/science-money-makes-you-happier-2013-04-30

* Health - for obvious reasons. I have some exercise equipment and also recently bought a juice machine. Been buying organic vegetables, organic buffalo meat, and organic beef & chicken, wild fish, coconut oil, coconut milk, flax seeds, etc. I also take some nutritional supplements. The juice machine is great. It does a lot for my nutrition.

* Intellectual challenge. I always need one or more things to challenge my mind, such as hobbies, business, etc. I like to develop skills and create or build things. But right now I've put aside all hobbies and I'm focusing only on business.

 

[ilrein]

@Kak

A value is partially defined as something we have to both work to achieve and upkeep.

One may value honesty, but the continuous commitment to being truthful, is part of upkeeping your value.

One may value freedom, but only by unifying every aspect of one's life to the ultimate goal of being free, is upkeeping that value. If by some action (or inaction, such as staying in a comfort zone of a relationship that has long ago atrophied), you violate your personal integrity--which is effectively a combination of all your values.

The result is that you won't feel right. There will be a cloud of negative emotions, and you will feel unclean. Only by bringing your inactions to conscious awareness, and then actively working to correct them, will you truly ever be able to dispel that pestilent cloud of gnawing self-doubt and paralysis.

Those values aren't ever truly gone if neglected, but only when you deliberately seek to uphold them, do you realize how vital their maintenance and upkeep is--and what a cascading effect it has on your self-esteem.

 

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[eliquid]

I am not sure why we are even talking about Atlas Shrugged or basing what our values should be on a "book".

If you have to base and define your core value(s) on a book, a work of another person, then you are doing this exercise totally wrong.

Your core value(s) should be an exercise into your life, not based on some book.. no matter the book. A book is a work of someone else, your core value(s) should be a work of yourself.

I understand if you want to point out an example or take inspiration for an argument. However, to argue that everyone's core value(s) should be modified or changed based on what someone else wrote and believed in their own life is a bit far fetched.

 

[Supercar]

I think if one can live a normal and happy life without X then that person should not call X a core value.

Hank Rearden was unhappy because he didn't have his hierarchy of values structured clearly. He had one list in his subconscious mind while he was following another list that the society had given him to follow. This was his internal conflict, and it was making him unhappy.

Everyone considers personal happiness to be their final goal. Even Jim Taggert and all other "selfless" second-handers do, even if they think that their personal happiness consists of the happiness of all the people around them. But the result matters as much as the process does. Happiness should be the intended outcome of having acheved ones core values. You also have to know what those valies are. People who do not know what their happiness consists of will end up chasing other values that they may consider important at the current time. I think Ayn Rand referred to those people as whim worshipers. They may stumble upon and even reach some of their values by accident, but they will still not know if they are happy or not and why.

 

[GuestUser112]

Those of us that are talking about Atlas Shrugged are doing so because the heroes of that novel are people who live by values that we can connect parallels with. We see the best of ourselves in those characters.

 

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[Supercar]

@eliquid

I haven't seen anyone here listing the same core values as Atlas Shrugged did. I came up with my list of values about a decade ago, way before I read it. The book was mostly used as a fictional dystropian example of having wrong or undefined core values.

 

[Kak]

I am not sure why we are even talking about Atlas Shrugged or basing what our values should be on a "book".

If you have to base and define your core value(s) on a book, a work of another person, then you are doing this exercise totally wrong.

Your core value(s) should be an exercise into your life, not based on some book.. no matter the book. A book is a work of someone else, your core value(s) should be a work of yourself.

I understand if you want to point out an example or take inspiration for an argument. However, to argue that everyone's core value(s) should be modified or changed based on what someone else wrote and believed in their own life is a bit far fetched.

The book simply provides an example of both upheld and weakened values... I think it is a very good example here.. Hank Rearden in particular. The man had extremely strong values but he let people into his life that made upholding these values difficult... It is a very important lesson.

 

[GuestUser112]

Lol right, Hank not Henry.

 

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[Esquire]

**

 

[cylonbc]

Integrity & Discipline. To which I am trying to add Clarity & Boldness in 2015

 

[Draven Grey]

I can understand happiness being goal, but it's not what drives me forward as a core value. Most of what I've seen listed here would be what I call true or end goals, rather than core values that are the built-in drive and underlying current behind every action and decision made by a person, the principles they live by. The core values that I listed took me about eight hours each to figure out and describe using the process of Appreciative Inquiry. They are derived from examining the stories of my life and what the common themes and words were that kept coming up. It was a great way to reveal the reasons why behind all of my decisions and actions throughout my life. I'm not driven forward by happiness, although it may be a goal that I work towards. I could list freedom of time, money, and location as a goal, which ultimately leads to happiness. But I couldn't list those things as the principles that I live by. My values are there despite how I feel. They are deeply ingrained principles of how I navigate life. They have been exactly the same for as far back as I can remember (over 30 years), probably learned from my family for the most part, guiding principles that everything I do or think is checked against.

 

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[Kak]

 

[GuestUser112]

val·ue (noun)

1. 1.
   the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
2. 2.
   a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.
   
   I believe this definition is where the confusion comes in that leads us to use 'principles' and 'values' interchangeably. Values are objects/ideas/actions that are to be valued on a scale, some more than others. Principles > Cheeseburgers in this respect for myself.

prin·ci·ple
noun

1. 1.
   a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.

The reason I listed 'happiness' as the only logical 'core value' is because all of our actions are intended to further reaching that goal. A goal can certainly be something that is a value, because it is something that can be valued. I believe it (happiness) is the most valuable thing to any living creature.

The principle of this belief is that 'Happiness is the most valuable thing". The chain of reasoning that would evolve from this is "All of my actions should be to further my own happiness, therefore, my highest values are those actions/behaviors that help to reach this goal most effectively." However, happiness would remain the 'core value' of that method of thinking.

Afterward, we can discuss principles such as Connection: the belief that connecting to other people is good/beneficial.

How do we determine whether something is good or beneficial? Through our core value (singular): Happiness.

Therefore, something is a higher value if it is compatible with our core value.

After that, we can look at actions. Which actions keep us adhering to those principles which adhere to our core values? Draven Grey mentioned an action towards actualizing the principle of Connection: empathetic communication. Through empathetic communication, we fulfill the higher value of the principle of Connection, and we do this because this principle fulfills our core value of personal happiness.

As I said, logic prevails. I rest my case.

So, my friends, we must find those principles that lead us towards happiness, and which actions serve those principles best.

Granted this is all based upon the definition of the word 'core' as it's second noun definition, which is 'the central or most important part of something'. I believe the term 'most important' implies singularity.