What are your personal values?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, what are your values?

I’ve been doing some soul-searching lately, and this is what I’ve come up with.

My values can be pretty much summed up as H&B- Honesty and Bravery, or Heart and Balls when I’m feeling cheeky.

Perhaps bravery is most important, because it’s a prerequisite for honesty. Bravery just means facing the world boldly and with full commitment. It means looking to find what I know is right, and pursuing that with unwavering confidence. Bravery means independence, and basing my life on something deeper than other’s opinions. And bravery means doing what needs to be done, even when it can have negative consequences. I will stand up and fight for what I know to be true, both in the world and to myself.

And bravery means being brave enough to love and be loved. To put myself on the line.

Honesty means absolute honesty with myself and others. I have committed to not lying to people. I won’t cheat or steal. I try not to do acts that I feel like I’d want to hide, and when I do I apologize and try to make things right immediately. I want my actions to stand up for themselves in the light of day. This commitment has saved my ass a number of times. It’s amazing how much more receptive people are when you are willing to give them the straight simple truth, even when it is unpleasant.

Honestly to myself is much harder. It means confronting and working through my fears, flaws, and insecurities. It means acknowledging my bad choices. It means admitting to the bad things and dealing with them instead of using some of the wonderful toolbox of bad coping mechanisms I have developed over the years. Honestly means stopping myself from making up romantic stories about myself and instead defining myself by my actions and my dreams. Finally, honest means being true to myself and my values, and not letting those get derailed.

So that’s what is currently guiding my life. You?

2

It’s tattooed on my chest over my heart:

without hate
without pain
without fear

I am free.

3

I’ve made a commitment to live my life with confidence, dominance (when warranted), joy, respect, and health. I’m committed leaving everyone better than I found them.

4

I won’t be wronged. I won’t be insulted. I won’t be laid a-hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.

-John Wayne from “The Shootist”

Boils down to the golden rule. If you always treat people the way you’d like to be treated, you won’t go wrong.

Doesn’t mean they are decent people, but you give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves one way or the other. It doesn’t usually take long.