Values and Decisions

Have you ever sat down and really nailed out and prioritized your values? Supposedly, if you know them; decision making becomes a lot easier. Granted this makes sense, but boy let me tell you – defining your values isn’t the easy task once you get past the 2 obvious ones of Faith and Family. It has literally taken me all day to really create my well-defined hierarchy of values. I’ve had to work on it some, then leave it some, let it soak a little while, look up definitions. Whoa – I’m tired! I was given a list of values and from that list had to pick the most important ones. Then I had to categorize them; then create connecting themes within the categories; then I had to define the themes – the theme became my true value. I have 7 true values. Wait! I’m not done! Then I had to put these true values in an hierarchy whereby I had to ask myself what life would be like without this particular value compared to another, which one would have the greater impact upon my life. Greatest impact to least impact became my ….drum roll please…. Anna’s Hierarchy of Values. Holy Cow! Are you confused? Talk about a self moral inventory… Now that I have this list, I’m to make sure that my decisions represent my values and wha-la; decision making becomes a snap! I have a funny feeling it’s not going to be so easy at first. I’ve already noticed that some of my recent decisions do not represent my values…uh oh…now what? Hum, I’ll have to save that brain teaser for tomorrow!