Values and morals are very important, for both our personal and work life. Why? Because when we are working in line with our personal values and morals we feel good about ourselves and contented with our lives. If we start to act against them, we soon start to feel unhappy with our lives and our feelings of contentment diminish. This will result in feelings of unhappiness that leach into your home life too. So before you make any decisions about your working life, it is important to make sure you think about what values and morals make you happy. Of course, many of us need to work long, hard hours and sometimes do jobs that we would rather not simply to make ends meet. But, this exercise is to see what you’ll do if you have the choice?
What exactly are values and morals?
Well, they are the things that you believe are important to you and the way you live your life. They will give you a sense of right and wrong and are defined as:
Values – ‘the ideals, customs, institutions etc. of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as cruelty, crime, or blasphemy.’
For example, what do you value more in your life, money or time with your family? If you value money more than time with your family you could take a job that requires you to work ten hours a day, seven days a week. You’d be very tired, but you’d have plenty of money to show for your hard work. The money would allow you to buy nice things for yourself and your family, but you’d have very little time to see your kids or wife enjoy the things you give them. Alternatively, if you value time with your wife and kids more than money, you might be more inclined to give up your ability to buy new things in favour of spending time with them.
A good way to start defining your values is to see what traits you value in yourself. For example, do you value honesty, integrity and generosity or perhaps competitiveness, decisiveness and commitment? Look at the list below and choose about ten words that you feel describe your values towards life. This is only a short list to get you thinking about the question:
Achievement
Altruism
Ambition
Balance
Boldness
Carefulness
Challenge
Commitment
Compassion
Competitiveness
Contentment
Cooperation
Creativity
Decisiveness
Dependability
Determination
Discipline
Efficiency
Enthusiasm
Equality
Excitement
Expertise
Fairness
Generosity
Hard Work
Honesty
Independence
Ingenuity
Inquisitiveness
Intuition
Loyalty
Obedience
Openness
Originality
Perfection
Practicality
Professionalism
Prudence
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Restraint
Selflessness
Sensitivity
Spontaneity
Stability
Strength
Thoroughness
Thoughtfulness
Tolerance
Trustworthiness
Understanding
Vision
Morals – ‘of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong.’
But, how do morals relate to your work life? Well, I’m sure you know that it is wrong to persuade people to buy an item by lying about the benefits or quality of it. So, if you were expected to do that as part of a job you are being offered, would you be happy doing it? If not, you have to make the difficult decision about whether that job is for you or not. You may need the money, but do you risk having the job ruin your happiness and affect your work and home life? Morals are tricky and can take some time to work out. If you are selling something, ask yourself: Would I be happy selling this to my Grandmother? If the answer is no, you’ll probably struggle to convince prospective customers to part with their money too.
Reaffirming your choices
And when you’ve made your decision, just to make sure you’ve chosen correctly, ask yourself these questions:
• Am I proud of these values and morals?
• Would I be happy telling people that I admire and respect what they are?
• Would I stick by these values and morals even if they make me unpopular?
• Do these values and morals make me feel good about myself?
Difficult Decisions
These are the difficult decisions we all have to make in both our working and personal lives. But the outcomes can make or break careers and relationships, so you should take time to carefully consider what your values and morals are – without being affected by others around you. And this is the last important point to keep in mind – make sure your values and morals really are yours. Don’t listen to what your best friend, mother, uncle or the local shop keeper says; listen to yourself and decide for yourself. After all, it’s you that has to live by them!
