The Value of A Life Essay Example

Understanding the values that coincide with your life, can help your outlook on several aspects of your life too. Everyone is on a constant journey to self-discovery, choosing values that are important to you is a potential element to help make this process become clearer.  

In “Why We Work” by Schwartz, he gives us a clear understanding that working at a job you actually like and appreciate creates a better environment to be in for you and others, rather than being at a job strictly for money, where an environment with a low morale is created. Determining your values can also be a way for you to set boundaries. “Ninety percent of adults spend half their waking lives doing things they would rather not be doing at places they would rather not be'' (Schwartz). The following values: authenticity, meaning found mostly in work, excitement and novelty, and moral fulfilment, are all different values that set boundaries of accomplishing the theme Schwartz was going for in “Why We Work”. These listed values give people a meaning to do something they enjoy rather than a job they don’t. People work to survive.

The values I reflect on the most have more to do with how I relate to them as an individual; how happy they make me. I would like to have a job that I enjoy and look forward to, but a job that also makes money. By having a job that you don’t enjoy can decrease your happiness. Loving your job, loving the environment you’re in, loving the people you’re around can become an output in your overall happiness.  

Love, work, and wealth are common things all people long for to experience happiness. I think that they all go hand-in-hand in some way, but you don't need all of them to prolong a happy, successful life. You can love your work, but not be wealthy. Or you could love someone and be wealthy, but not enjoy your job. These three things can be interchangeable, with added factors of happiness. Happiness is subjective to each person. Some people may not need to be wealthy, like their work, or be in love, there are alternatives to what ‘happiness’ could mean. 

All these terms of happiness could mean different things to different people. To some, wealth can mean money and to others wealth could mean “rich in life”. Love could be the love of someone dear to you, the love of one's work, the love of materialistic items, the love for traveling, and so on. One person might like all things technology and enjoy working at a Best Buy, while someone else might find it to be just another retail store. Happiness isn’t the same for everyone. 

The values people carry throughout life can change over time. The changing of values can come from leaving a job, entering a new relationship, whether that be romantic or platonic, buying anything materialistic. Personally, covid has changed my level of awareness of my values. I was able to spend more time with myself and really think about what direction my life was headed and if I liked that direction or not. I altered some values I had to make sure it was going in a good direction. 

Personal growth has been a value I've always honored, I know I'm growing as a person everyday and the choices I make affects my growth. Over quarantine, I was able to monitor my journey of self-growth and ways I could help aid the process in the future to become a better person internally and externally. During that process, I was able to take time for myself to figure out what I needed and wanted. This value holds a lot of importance to me to forever help build my character and become a happier and healthier version of myself. 

The value ‘personal growth’ will be a value I don't see myself ever not having, it's a constant walk of self rehabilitation. Taking a moment to think about where my life can potentially end up, personal growth is a key of clarity in my path of life. Individuality is another value I have that I’ve branched off of personal growth. A majority of your life you spend time alone, learning to love and appreciate yourself can make that alone time less lonely. Personally, I believe the trait individuality is a good way to increase your sense of self-worth. 

It’s difficult for me to talk about one relationship between two concepts when all the concepts can easily be intertwined with each other. Money, love, and work are all important to me, each to a different degree. Without one, I can see how my values could change. For example, without love, I don't think I would have the value of personal growth, potentially losing all the progress and love I have for myself.  I can argue that there’s a bridge between the three concepts, making it hard to deem the relationship between two is more important than the relationship of another. 

In the future, I would hope to be able to endure all three of these concepts and not have to worry about the loss of one. The loss of either of them could lead to a failing happiness. I also hope that in the future, I can add the values: balanced life, stability, moral fulfillment, and bettering society. In my journey to self-discovery and personal growth, these values are a part of that. 

The values you hold in life can be just as important as you make them out to be. Those values are boundaries you set for yourself in order to gain happiness. Without values the path you walk through can be unclear and can be hard to manage. But, those values could also be a way to learn more about yourself and what you want or need in life to succeed. They're also a way to help you gain a sense of right and wrong, a way to create a better environment for yourself and a way to reflect on your past and future.