Do You Know What Your Values Are? Are You Enthusiastic About Them? How Can You Improve Yourself and Your World? Thought leader and author Jason Merchey weighs in on how you can find more happiness, success, meaning, fulfillment, and virtue in life through wisdom.
You use your values every day, but do you know how you came to honor those particular values? What are they? Can you list them off as quickly as you would list your favorite foods? Most people can’t, and that is curious since values underlie and affect one’s behavior, success, satisfaction, roles, beliefs, goals, health, and spiritual life.
“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Values of the Wise can help you identify and emphasize values that you yourself choose, that you can be proud of, that you can defend. In doing so, you will be living “a life of value.”
- Define your own values
- Design a blueprint for your own “life of value”
- Build your life by using your values to reach your vision
Live a Life of Value! When you do:
- You know what values you value, which virtues you possess, and what makes you ethically/spiritually/emotionally/mentally unique.
- You are aware of what the influences are on the values you possess at the current moment, and you make efforts to emphasize those of your choosing and de-emphasize that are really just instilled in you because of culture, genes, religious background, early family environment, etc.
- You are making consistent progress seeking and cultivating within you the values that you consciously choose – preferably values that are not harmful to others – for example, passion and courage versus greed and vengefulness.
- You are excited by your values. You know what you believe, why, and how. Every day you are proud or enthusiastic of the life you lead, the relationships you are in, the mark you’re leaving on the planet. You are motivated to live life, to become all you can, to make a positive difference, to come to know yourself.
I’m Jason Merchey. I’ve been studying and communicating about values through books, podcasts, my website, and my blogs for fourteen years.
My values represented my parents when they were absent or hurtful; my religion when I needed guidance; and a substitute for blind patriotism. I have a vision for where I want my community and this country and the world to be in the future, but Socrates said, “He who would move the world must first move himself.”
Educate Yourself Without Being Bored, Annoyed, or Patronized: Values of the Wise is a solid, reputable source for educating yourself, finding support, and exploring what thousands of interesting and wonderful persons – ancient and contemporary – have had to say about your chosen values.
"We are called to be architects of our future, not its victims." ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Do you wonder what exactly Mohandas Gandhi felt about justice and peace? Do you think that Mother Teresa or the men who stormed the cockpit of flight 93 when it was hijacked on September 11 have something to teach about service and courage? Do you wish there was a definitive source that was non-partisan, non-sectarian, and not temporally-limited to inform you about these values you have deep inside you but don’t really know how to get enthusiastic about? If you’re a member of a jury, a mother, a leader in the workplace, or a teenager trying to figure our your belief system, wouldn’t it be nice to have access to a deep and wide collection of thousands of thoughts on the values you value?
You Have Big Questions – Most of Which You Forgot About a Long Time Ago.
You’re Thirsty for Authentic Inspiration for What You Believe In.
Here is a Source to Quench Your Thirst, a Place Where You Direct Your Own Search for Who You Are!
What is the difference between peace and fulfillment? How are courage and strength similar and different? Describe justice. Have you ever really felt passion? Is your level of self-awareness what you really want it to be? Do you practice peace every day? What does it mean to be dedicated? What can you do to assist your children as they grow up in today’s world? How can you be more successful? What is love about? What is the meaning of life? What is out there in the cosmos? How can I contribute to the healing of the planet? What role can I play in this society, saturated by self-serving media, inauthentic religion, and corrupt politics?
In order to answer these important questions, it takes actual learning, thinking, consciousness, conscientiousness, and practice.
Developing one’s ethical, spiritual, and emotional life does not happen as easily as gaining weight – it is more akin to exercising.
It can be a bit daunting to look at a stack of books in a library and think, “How do I find what I’m looking for?”
Jason Merchey has been studying values, virtues, wisdom, ethics, and personal growth for more than half his life. He has personally collected and made easily available 30,000 quotations in the awesome Wisdom Archive, a one-of-a-kind searchable quotations database. No pressure, nothing to buy, no agenda, no religious indoctrination.
Whom can you turn to for sage advice, wisdom, and guidance in a world that seems to have gone topsy-turvy? How does one know which values are really solid and reliable?
When you think of Jesus, see that movie character doing the right thing, hear the Dalai Lama, or watch a religious figure in your place of worship, think of Martin Luther King or Helen Keller, do you – like me – get the feeling that they practice and really “live” their chosen values?
Think about what wise, happy, moral, and successful people have in common; is not one of the factors the way they understood, accepted, and passionately “lived” who they really were? Helen Keller never gave up; Aristotle was inquisitive; the Buddha was self-directed. They beat their own path and the rest of us admire them for doing so.
The wise have plenty to teach, and it’s not about money, partisan politics, religiosity, or commercialism. The message of the wise is not beyond your reach or your grasp. Listen to what these leaders and thinkers were teaching and leaving behind. Use their wisdom to create your own path. Become a better person.
"It's never too late to become what you might have been" ~ George Eliot
Visit Values of the Wise for a superb source of wisdom, values, and inspiration!