Day 280; What Do You Truly Value

I like the buzz of the city but...

                         What Do You Truly Value?

I recently had a conversation with a friend who wondered about the best way to choose a mate. It just happened that I was working on an upcoming book with a friend on value based relationships.

Marlon Smith, the author, lecturer and engineer is writing about how in life, our values rather than our likes and dislikes should lead us. (Read More)

“What we value, we treasure and what we treasure we care for,” he points out. The more I think about his point the more I see the way my own life and relationships have gone. At the end of the day, it all comes down to values, but I have also observed that both young and old don’t always know what they value.

We have been told what we should want from the moment we first stopped and stared at a TV. Now, we learn from “friends” on the internet that we need to want more and more; the only difference being that there is a larger more global choice to select from.

I once met a couple who were young and had been married for over 20 years. They met at a train station while the two were both still in college. They told me that on the night before their wedding, they stayed up all night talking about what they truly loved and valued. They recognized that they wanted to travel more than most and decided to design their lives that way. The husband was studying business and the wife was premed. They worked hard over the years taking more and more time off annually. What began as only a few weeks of travel, turned into only a few months of work until eventually, they could retire.

They had no children, owned a small apartment and had the same car for most of that time. They spent most of their money on travel and books; staying in places that ranged from the least expensive to the most luxurious.

I marveled at their commitment to do what they desired. They shared that they also loved to learn, so from time to time they would enroll in different courses, learning how to express and live their lives more fully.

If we could go back in time designing our lives based on our values, I’m sure that for most of us, lots of things would be different.

So imagine that you have gone back in time and now you are designing for the next twenty years of your life. What would you like it to be? What do you value most and want to make sure is a part of your life for the future.

·         If you value health and well-being, start living like it.

·         If you value education and learning, start reading—and by the by, get a library card.

·         If you value your children and their future pour into them the lessons you think they will need and make sure you pour the love that goes with it.

Where our values are concerned, we should do more than lip service.

Start living what you believe.

Be you, be well, be valuable.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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...I truly value the peace of the country