What matters most?
When you live with your values in the lead, life is much more worthwhile and satisfying, even in the presence of challenges and loss.
Glance at the following list. One or two of these satisfactions are probably already in your life. They arrived either as gifts, or as conditions you created through intention and work.
Even if they ‘just happened’, you will have to do some work if you want to maintain them. Each person must find their own values, and work to appreciate and create the conditions which fulfill them.
You can have maybe five of these conditions in some measure. You will only be able to manifest two or three in abundance, perhaps more if you have great focus and discipline. It is wise to know which items are #1, #2 and #3 on your list of personal values. Then you know where to focus your energy to create a meaningful life for yourself. There are a lot of attention grabbers out there which can steal your time if you don’t know what is most important for fulfilling your life.
Look at the list again. Narrow your choices down to 3-5 priorities. Now decide which one of the specific descriptor phrases works best for you…or write your own!
Whatever you desire can flourish in your life with discipline and love. Ideally, your values and your partner’s will complement each other, though they don’t have to (and probably won’t) match completely.
Things which can make life worth living:
A Home in a Beautiful Place: To live at the ocean, river, or mountain: Living with nature: Having fabulous views from the windows.
A Great Career: Productive activity: Accolades: Accomplishment: Responsibility: Contributing to a field of endeavor: Leading others.
Creative Expression: Artistic endeavor: Public display of one’s art: Making things with my hands: Making beautiful things: Performing: Communicating an idea through paint, dance, music, words, and emotion.
Financial Success: Handling money well: Making more of your cash: Creating and having money: Creating a sense of security with funds.
A Loving Marriage: Partnership with a beloved one: Respect and affection: Romantic expression: Making Love: Developing the friendship.
Spiritual and/or Religious Life: Disciplined prayer, meditation, Service: Sharing truth: Fellowship: Seeking to know and love God: Cultivating love, forgiveness, strength and compassion.
Healthy Body: Athleticism: Purity of intake: Cultivating the Body Beautiful: Working at health: Discipline of honoring the body.
Service to Community: Involving myself with social solutions: Helping those less fortunate: Supporting people in need or crisis: Being an agent of change.
Integrity: Rigorous honesty: Doing what you said you would: Positive Intention: Right Action: Character- ‘What you do when no one’s looking’: Seeking truth and justice in all interactions.
House Beautiful: Beautifying the interior and exterior of a home: Decorating, housekeeping, and gardening.
Parenting: Raising children well: Seeking to love, know and guide: Nurturing the next generation of hearts and minds: Quality and quantity time with your kids.
Living Lavishly: Enjoying the best of food, entertainment, and clothing: Being seen.
Sensual pleasure: Partying.
Leadership: Civic involvement: Government organization and decision making: Implementing choices to benefit all: Political activism.
Academic Inquiry: Studious effort to learn: Seeking truth in concept and fact: Writing, researching, teaching information: Proposing new thought: Discussing the implications of new information: Critical Thinking.
Social success: Friends and fun: Being seen while looking good: Being known to many: Invited everywhere: Hosting entertainments: Knowing important people.
Family Ties: Sticking close with relatives: Expressing the culture of my youth: Commitment to parents, siblings, children, and extended family: Deep relationships: Intimate, committed friendships.
Entrepreneurism: Owning a business: Being Self-employed: Making deals that profit one, selling products or services.
Adventure: Travel: Exploration: Living by the seat of your pants in a strange place: Dangerous or death defying sport: Seeking experiences of awe and wonder, or great challenge.
Order: Everything in its place: Organization: Calmness of mind expressed in home or planning, in task or stuff: Taking great care of space and possessions.
Nature: Enjoying the great outdoors: Living in harmony with the natural world; Exploring or protecting wild and green places: Teaching others about aspects of the earth, sky, water: Stewardship of the planet and its creatures: Nurturing life on earth.
