Living our Values

There is a page on the Internet that I like a lot: http://www.values.com.

One day driving back home, while waiting for the red light to change, I saw a billboard with a phrase that caught my eyes, later at home, I looked for it and liked it on Facebook.

I enjoy the nice quotes that they post everyday, they inspire me since they are a beautiful reminder that we have the choice, we can decide to keep or not a positive attitude.

Our values are a very important part of us, they shape our behavior, and are a part of who we are. I can say that values are our conscience telling us: “Would you do the same thing if someone was watching or if you knew it is going to be on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow?”.

We are responsible of teaching our kids what is important for us, what and why it matters, and actually the best way to teach something is by being the example.

I remember one time, I would like to say when I was kind of young, my boyfriend and I were in the forest, and I had a cookie wrapping, I really couldn’t find a trash can, so as bad as it is, I just let if fall right there.

Here is when the teaching moment happened, my boyfriend, told me: “Littering is really bad, next time you have something you want to throw, and there is no trash can, give it to me and I will put it inside my pocket”.

Wow!, I totally knew that I have to throw my trash in the right place: the trash can, but I didn’t know better what to do if there was no one close. This was a simple solution beyond my knowledge. You never know when your example will influence and inspire others, like in this case which was the last time I littered.

When something is important, when something really matters, you are not going to leave it to luck and destiny, because when you really believe in something, you live by it.

Another example I can think about, is when I was young my mom used to send me to church on Sundays, but she rarely went with me. Now it doesn’t bother me to say that as a grown up I rarely go to church.

So, definitively if something is important to you, be the example, just telling others to do things you don’t do, won’t work. Our values are principles or ideals that fuel and motivate us to be the best we can be.

Identify, teach and live your values, because they are worth it!.