Does everyone have basic values?

One of the complaints a lot of people used to have about Bill Clinton was they said he didn't <em>stand</em> for anything, that he could triangulate any issue -- no matter how simple of complex -- to put himself in the best position to get votes.

Well, even if you accept Clinton in that light, he had values.

[caption id="attachment_488" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Values"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/values_sm_1.gif"><img class="size-medium wp-image-488" title="values_sm_1" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/values_sm_1-300x297.gif" alt="" width="300" height="297" /></a>[/caption]

Consider these -- personal achievement, economic rewards, personal recognition and success.

All of those are values, and many of us who were to list what matters to us would have at least one or two of those things on our list.

As part of my Summer of Awakening here at Rancho Cortez in Bandera, Texas, I have been listening to a very fine life coach talk about values. <a rel="external nofollow" href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-6080384/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5sZWlhZnJhbmNpc2NvLmNvbQ==">Leia Francisco </a>of Kerrville was talking today about Identifying Core Values, and how knowing our own core values can help us stay true to what matters to us.

<a rel="external nofollow" href="http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-6080384/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zaW1vbndvcmtzaG9wcy5jb20v">Sydney Simon</a>, a values expert, says a value has three ingredients.

1. You choose them freely. Your values cannot be forced upon you.

2. You prize your values, especially core values.

3. You act on your values repeatedly. They become habit to you.

We were given a list to choose from, a list ranging from A (achievement, adventure, authenticity) to W (wisdom). They could conceivably have put Zest for living on the list to cover the gamut, but they didn't.

A few of the things on the list didn't really seem like values to me -- "playfulness?" -- but different things matter to different people.

We were asked to narrow our list to 10 things and then to five, and those five were called our true core values.

Some of the winnowing out process was easy. Some things on the list didn't matter to me much if at all -- adventure, beauty, economic rewards, orderliness, playfulness, risk taking and tradition -- and with some of the others, they seemed like three or four ways of saying the same thing.

I know there are differences between integrity, honesty and ethical living, but are they enough to make more than one of them your core values?

I had seven that mattered a lot to me, and just because humor and health/fitness didn't make the final cut doesn't mean I don't value both and consider them important to pursue.

Both of those were in a serious three-day battle for the fifth and final spot in the core, and they lost out to "contributing my talents, ideas, energy ..."

My first four might as well be written in stone.

Family, friendship, spirituality and integrity.

My most important role in this world is as a husband and a father, and my greatest treasures are my family and my lifelong friends. The next two things are -- I hope -- what make me the man I am and the man I am in the process of becoming.

Take some time yourself to consider your own values. I'm not urging anyone to be more like me. I'm sure there are perfectly good, happy people with some very different core values.

But unless you know what your own core values are, unless you honor them in your daily life, it's tough even to know who you really are.

And everybody ought to at least know who they are.

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<em>This was initially posted at AllVoices.com.</em>