Rob and I just finished reading a book all about caring for your soul, simplifying your life, and "[living] a life that reflects your priorities." About halfway through the chapter titled "Prune" I had a thought that started a half-crisis for me: I don't have enough Values.
I will elaborate.
A lot of books on simplifying talk about turning down committments, since we're all over-booked. And this book, called Simplify by Carolyn J. Rasmus, talked specifically with making sure the life we live reflects what our priorities are.
Well, to start with, I'm not over-booked. I'm probably WAY under-booked, actually. I just don't like to be stressed.
And let's turn to priorities. What, specifically, are my priorities? Hmm. That's a tough one. And hence my half-crisis began: What are my priorities?
The only priority I could come up with: Laziness. Okay, that's unfair to me. I don't like stress; I avoid stress at all costs; I act like stress might kill me. I don't say no to everything, mind you, but I'm not volunteering for a lot, either. I just can't handle a lot of stress, and if I stay as far away from it as possible, I'm doing pretty good. Better safe than sorry, eh?
But you know what ultra-stress-avoidance does? Nothing. It's laziness, really.
And THAT is what I decided my one true Value in life is: Stress-Avoidance. ... We should call it something better. Something that sounds like a real Value that people (real people, not just me) would actually seek. How about ... Peace. Quiet. There, those are happy words. Peace it is. Hey! I feel better about that already.
(I feel like at this point I should pay myself a few bucks for this therapy session. "You are a peace-loving person, Tamra. Say this to yourself in the mirror every morning: 'I am good enough.' That will be $50, please.")
I couldn't come up with another Value that I have. Or, at least, if I could come up with a Value, it came in second place to Peace. And it wasn't even like the race was close. Peace beat out Service, Spirituality, and Education by at LEAST a few body lengths.
It occured to me that I should perhaps get a few other Values. To balance out my life. To come up with them, though, would require some effort, and I'm not really sure how I feel about that.
Here are some other values that you may be interested in: 3.1415926535etc (pi), 6.626etc x 10^-34 (Planck's constant in m^2kg/s), 299,792,458 (speed of light in m/s). There, was that helpful?
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