What Do You Value?

Increasingly in today's world, we have people who know the price of everything but the value of none. So what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his own soul?


What do you value? Appreciation of beauty and excellence, Empathy, Forgiveness, Kindness, Honesty, Curiosity, Spirituality, Energy, Humour, Perseverance, Principle, Hope, Love of Learning, Gratitude, Open-Mindedness, Humility, Courage, Fairness, Justice, Sincerity, Creativity, Self-Control,  etc.

In a recent survey, Singaporeans value in order of what values people hold closest to their hearts (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most important) - (1) 8.92 for Honesty (Truth, Upright and Genuine), (2) 8.55 for Kindness (Benevolent, Compassionate and Helpful), (3) 8.50 for Gratitude (Aware and Appreciate the good things that happen, saying    Thanks), (4) 8.43 for Fairness (Unbiased and Impartial), (5) 8.32 for Forgiveness (Accept Shortcomings of Others, Giving People a Second Chance), (6) 8.29 for Empathy (Understanding and Being Sensitive to Others), (8) 8.25 for Principle (Living Life according to a Code of Conduct),  (10) 8.14 for Self-Control (Disciplined on Appetites and Emotions), (11) 8.09 Humility (Being Modest and not regarding Oneself as Special), (13) 8.0 Open-Mindedness (Think Through Things and not Jumping to Conclusion, listening and weighing Evidence from all sides), (15) 7.83 Humour (See the Lighter Side of Life), (16) 7.75 Courage (Not Shrinking from Threat, Challenge, Difficulty or Pain),  (17) 7.56 Spirituality (Having Coherent Belief about Higher Purpose, Meaning of the Universe/Meaning of Life), (19) 7.45 Appreciation of Beauty (Notice and Value Great Beauty in all areas from Nature to Art), (20) 7.4 Curiosity (Finding Subjects fascinating, Exploring and Discovering). I left out a few like Love of Learning, Hope, Energy, Creativity, not that you have no hope or energy or not creative but they are too me a different category.

Before we even go on, take note that what you value and whether you practise what you value are entirely different things. How important is each of these traits? Take Honesty for example. It is an absolute. There is no such thing as a more  honest or less honest person. You are either honest or dishonest. Let me share with you some previous articles I have written:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2008/11/inner-peace-2-umpire-strikes-back.html

And this one besides honesty, has a broad range of important attributes for a person's character:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2010/05/character.html

Last but not least - integrity and truth:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2010/11/honesty-integrity-truth-hit.html

Each of these traits are a topic unto itself. It is different from say choosing your favourite colour or favourite fruit. If you look and study carefully, despite all being separate values, they are intrinsically linked such that one value will latch on to another and in a way inseparable. .

If you are not kind, you can't have empathy. If you don't have principles, how to be honest? If you are not grateful, can you have humility? Can one be fair without an open mind? Practise spirituality without exhibiting self control? Will you forgive more easily if you have more spirituality and a greater sense of humour? If you are a grateful person, you will see and appreciate beauty in all things. Curiosity will keep you asking questions in your mind to discover the truths of all these things mentioned and when you have all these, it shall empowered you with tremendous courage come what may. Don't you think?

Watch this space as I go to the mountain.....for more wisdom.

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