Adjectives

I’ve been working on values and what exactly they are and what they mean to me. The guiding definition is a state of being that I am continuously working toward. Goals, by contrast, are achievements along the way. This definition is startling because it flips aspects of personal growth. I have read countless articles and media click-bait about how to achieve goals. What I’m learning is that the goals aren’t really the point.

This concept made sense once I was challenged by “what happens when the goal is achieved?” The goals becomes a checkmark; that’s all. There’s no other interaction with them. I can achieve them, then what?

Values are both trickier and simpler. They are adjectives. They are the descriptors of who I want to be. The represent an ongoing process and the possibility for accepting failure. They can flex and change. They are the undercurrent that can make decisions easier or harder.

One of the exercises I needed to complete was to take 80ish adjectives and decided if they were important to me. I was to give some thought and notice what I felt about them. The exercise was a little harder than I thought. I kept wanting further gradations besides important/unimportant/very important. I was uncomfortable putting certain adjectives into the unimportant category. I also had a hard time distinguishing between was I was currently doing and what were aspiratons, and then following further and trying to figure out what those aspriations are based on.

I’m going to take another pass at it and reevaluate my choices again.