Values

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” 
― Roy Disney

Everyday you come in contact with things and events that make you test your personal values. I think our values come from the environment we are a part of and some we are just born with. The idea of nature vs nurture. I honestly think your values have to do with more of nurture. I know personally I value almost all of the same things that my parents and my family does. My parents raised me to reach for the stars and surround myself with people who would help me reach my goals and align with my own values. You can assure you are spending time on things you value by being aware of what you are doing and thinking before you do something, does this really align with what I believe in. In high school my dad would always tell me "think before you do something" of course I made mistakes at some points but I definitely learned form this and it has allowed me to become more congruent with my values and actually live out what I believe in. Some things I personally value are family, acceptance, trust, forgiveness, love, drive, friendship, my sisters, learning and independence. I am spending most of my time on learning, my sisters, friends and family. I need to focus on acceptance I value when people accept me for who I am so I need to be congruent with that and not judge people but accept them for who they are. I also need to focus on forgiveness when something goes wrong whether it be with a friend or with one of my sisters I am one to hold on to it forever and not forget about it but I need to show that value more and forgive and forget.

Personal values can be contributed into shared group values through adaptation. Being a leader I realize that I will not always be right and other people will have ideas that align with their values and this goes along with acceptance and listening to their values and adapting them to the group idea to develop ideas that create shared values for everyone. I personally do not think it is possible to always be a person of congruence there are times when you will slip up and that is when you need to step back and realize I was not aligning with my values and learn from that mistake. I think being a leader in the greek community helps because your sense of congruence develops and you are more aware that everyone watches what you do. That is why I strive to lead by example and display my values in my actions so people cannot come at me and say well you said this but did this so what should I believe or do. I want to be someone who is congruent in their actions so people take me seriously and value the ideas I bring to the table.