Re: Career/Employment Values Question/Values Check

[Guest guest]

What you DO with your money will help you BE what? Financially independent? Helpful to others more needy? Free to travel?

Helena

To: "ACT for the Public" <ACT_for_the_Public >Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 11:29:19 PMSubject: Career/Employment Values Question/Values Check

Hi everyone, I'm new to the group. I've been reading various act texts over the past few months, Dr. , Russ , and some others...ACT has so much to offer to help our lives and I find it fascinating.I've recently been starting to determine and list values for myself, and I've learned that values are not goals and are a life direction we will be taking indefinitely. I have a long term goal to earn over $75,000 per year, but I'm not sure what value this would be in the service of. Value = Building Wealth? Growing Income? Financial Gain? Do these seem like legitimate values to everyone? It almost seems like the having a value like Growing Income, or Building wealth can almost be seen as a goal (Although for instance Building Wealth could be a chosen life direction)...Yes, I may be just looking at semantics, but I'm taking my Values clarification and goal setting processes very seriously.-Thanks!

[Guest guest]

>

> I have a long term goal to earn over $75,000 per year, but I'm

> not sure what value this would be in the service of.

Hi,

I think you are right in suspecting an annual income goal to be a

goal and not a value. It is something that at least in theory you

could achieve and be done with.

And I like Helena's suggestion that your values may have more to

do with how you see yourself using that money, and not the money

per se.

Beyond that, here are two other ways of thinking about values you

might explore:

1) It can be helpful to think of values as general qualities of

action, which we then apply to the highly specific contexts of

our lives. In other words it is not one or the other (the value

or the context) but both together that end up mattering.

E.g. we all have specific relationships in our lives - child,

parent, partner, colleague, etc. So the value is not so much

" having " a relationship - it is choosing " how " to have it. I.e.,

what qualities do we seek to make present through our actions?

I.e. we can choose to behave respectfully; or to really listen;

or to behave lovingly; etc. All of which will look different

depending on the relationship and the situation.

Here is a way to think of it: If a value is like a direction, the

specifics are like the earth under our feet at this moment -

whether that earth be dirt or pavement, swamp or mountain. The

path stays more or less constant, but the earth is highly

specific & always changing. It is this combination of a direction

plus the earth under our feet that together create what we can

call a path. And it is the walking of the path (via our choice of

direction) that matters as much or more than the earth we happen

to be treading on at any particular moment.

So I wonder if you might look at your goal of " earn $75K or more

each year " and see how it not only connects to larger concerns,

as Helena suggests; but also how it connects to qualities of

action & the specific " earth under your your feet " where you

currently find yourself?

2) Russ has suggested that most values ultimately have to

do with either Caring, Connection, or Contribution. So you could

see whether one or more of these " big three " values are lurking

beneath the surface of your income goal. He has a great post on

this - you can search for message #12875 or else just go here:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACT_for_the_Public/message/

12875

Hope this helps -

Randy

[Guest guest]

Sorry, the line break mangled the URL to Russ 's post on Caring,

Connection, or Contribution. Here it is again -

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACT_for_the_Public/message/12875

- R.

[Guest guest]

I see your point here Helena, thanks. I've had this suspicion at the back of my

mind that " Wealth " per se is not a value, but it is tied in to your example of

travelling etc....

>

>

>

> What you DO with your money will help you BE what?  Financially

independent?  Helpful to others more needy?  Free to travel?

>

>

>

> Helena

>

>

>

> Career/Employment Values Question/Values Check

>

>  

>

>

>

>

> Hi everyone, I'm new to the group. I've been reading various act texts over

the past few months, Dr. , Russ , and some others...ACT has so much

to offer to help our lives and I find it fascinating.

>

> I've recently been starting to determine and list values for myself, and I've

learned that values are not goals and are a life direction we will be taking

indefinitely. I have a long term goal to earn over $75,000 per year, but I'm not

sure what value this would be in the service of. Value = Building Wealth?

Growing Income? Financial Gain? Do these seem like legitimate values to

everyone? It almost seems like the having a value like Growing Income, or

Building wealth can almost be seen as a goal (Although for instance Building

Wealth could be a chosen life direction)...Yes, I may be just looking at

semantics, but I'm taking my Values clarification and goal setting processes

very seriously.

>

> -Thanks!

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks Randy, I looked at Dr. link and read your response, I'll chew on

what you guys wrote and apply it to my values work. Thanks a bunch, if I'm

still lost I'll re-post or do a values check here again.

>

> Sorry, the line break mangled the URL to Russ 's post on Caring,

> Connection, or Contribution. Here it is again -

>

> http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACT_for_the_Public/message/12875

>

> - R.

>