Trust us, we dislike corporate jargon more than anyone on earth. The words “deck”, “leverage”, and “from a [insert role] perspective” can all go sit in timeout. Talking about “personal values” can also feel like this, but here us out.
Creating a strong, well-versed list of personal values informs our choice architecture. It is the design of decision making that we go through on a daily basis. We assign importance to everything we do, including a priority status, whether we’re conscious of it or not; we are influenced, we make a choice, we get an end result. Not to mention, the influence comes in the form of everything from billboards, commercials, and podcast advertisements to our friends’ opinions and personal history.
It’s up to us to decide what is important.
Creating, defining, and sticking to our personal values is what enforces them.
This might extend to decisions regarding money all the way to the way in which we act when no one is watching. Is the next dollar earned worth the next minute worked? How do you weigh taking more money at work vs. spending less time with your kids? Are you a “finders keepers” type person that keeps the money off the floor, or do you return it to the nearest counter in hopes that someone comes back for it?
Not all of these situations are black and white. Not all of these decisions are “right vs. wrong”, but more simply what matters to you? The “design” element of choice architecture asks us to put those values right in front of our face, often, so that we do not forget them in times of need. If we haven’t taken the time to decide what is important to us we may be swayed in the moment to make decisions we will later regret.
A quick example might be the personal value of “fairness” vs. “competitiveness”; are you a play by the rules or win at all costs type person? These are not necessarily mutually exclusive, however, they frequently come into conflict. People, just like corporations, should have values they create, define, and act by.
The best day ever is a choice, and our personal values guide how we go about building, designing, and living that day.
What are your personal values?
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