Core and aspirational values

Im currently writing papers on core and aspirational values in business environments (and procrastinating, can you tell? ) and I've been wondering what people at TOTJO thought about their values.

Have you ever stopped to consider what your core values are? What the "organizational" values and aspirational values are?

How do you think they shape who we are as Jedi and are there ways in which you/we might be out of alignment with those values?

Brenna wrote: Have you ever stopped to consider what your core values are? What the "organizational" values and aspirational values are?

I can only reflect on it unfortunately, but;

Core Values - perhaps the things which I use to assess and understand myself 'and' others, derived from experiences and serving as the basis for habit's - they tend to carry a burden of self identity yet are often not consciously chosen.

Organizational Values - delegation of resources, mainly the relationships of efforts (directed activity) as a function of time.

Aspirational Values - modification's of the other two in a future context, mostly to drive organizational 'action'.

Brenna wrote: How do you think they shape who we are as Jedi and are there ways in which you/we might be out of alignment with those values?

A lot, I'm trying to focus a lot on the habits, and better empower my capabilities to more effective action.

Personally, my aspirational values are based around having a 'ground' in compassion and wisdom, and develop skill in connecting them to as a core value set. The workplace is sort of different though, and on one hand there is the 'survival' element of having to do day in day out something you might not want to be doing at that particular time or manner, and on the other is the engagement within the workplace and industry. The later being just about awareness of stakeholder activity and appropriate subject matter expertise, and the former more about the broader purpose of effort and realities of survival in the present and future experience of life.

yes

my life right now is actually a time of restructuring and reaffirming of my values

this is where i am at

no deceiving people out of weakness or fear or denial of responsibility

its ok to lie to xerxes about thermopylae

its not ok to lie about why i didnt make it to class or work on time or about who i am romantically involved with because i want to avoid the consequences of acknowledging the truth

especially to myself, but from there on to everyone else

ive never been as forthright about my life as i am right now
i always had the attitude that it was no ones business but my own

now i feel its more important to my development to practice total transparency for a while because i feel that is one of the keys to total responsibility

so honesty and responsibility are major

also, courage, vision, and service

i know basically what i want to do with my life - this is my vision
now i have to put in the work to make it happen and its important that i find a way to structure it so that i am of as much service to my society as i can be within that context

it involves owning my own business and so the organizational values of the business are going to be a business expression of the above values

no matter what a person identifies themselves as - the identifier is just a word

who we are is how we act/how we act is who we are

our actions are our true character imo

if i want to be a person of exceptional character it requires first that i learn to act and to view the world in an exceptional way

also, i think this is possibly the best topic in totjo right now
maybe the only one that actually matters

thanks

OB1Shinobi wrote:
also, i think this is possibly the best topic in totjo right now
maybe the only one that actually matters

thanks

And as usual when it comes to important topics, the least responded to

Thank you for the response gentlemen. Much appreciated.

Adder, something you said about the habits intrigued me. Can you elaborate on that?


And OB1Shinobi, if its ok to lie to one, but not to another, then can honestly genuinely be a core value?

I can honestly say I have never sat down and tried to pinpoint my values. I try to "feel" things out as they come. I think I'm afraid if I "decide" on values, it won't be honest (because I'm not good at self-control or self-awareness), and I will come up to a point of cognitive dissonance between my projected value and the value I actually feel. So, until I learn to understand what I actually want, then I don't think I will honestly be able to pinpoint it.

Brenna wrote: Adder, something you said about the habits intrigued me. Can you elaborate on that?

I just think we all might tend to operate within habitual roles, developed through reinforcement over time, more then we might realize. So those could constitute core 'attributes' which we might shape to conform to values we think and/or feel are most important measures of self identity.

Those then might even extend outwards to become aspirational goals - if we are lucky enough to be engaged in some way with goals which we can aspire too. Otherwise if not connecting to genuine aspiration, then we might just keep struggling to connect to them and end up developing a defeatist view of self as a result.

I don't think habit's are bad though, as I'd imagine they relieve the burden of processing a lot of information off the conscious mind by putting it into the subconscious capacities, but identification of a habit could be an important first step to becoming aware of its causal footprint within and outside of self.

Beyond that, refinement or replacement of habits could bring tangible advantages I'd guess!? Unless a person is happy to be the sum of their pasts, as self, which could perhaps be what I'd consider the more normal and common approach - where upon awareness might automatically cause this process I refer.

I used to take a brute force approach of exerting efficiency over action to achieve refinement, and I think that has some value but I don't think it has to be so restrictive as that. At the end of the day I think a good outcome is both effective 'and' rewarding, so the whole thing is perhaps better balanced across our 'capacity for self', rather then using it to define self. I'll stop there before I really stop making any sense LOL, but that is sort of what I meant by habits.

Connor L. wrote: I can honestly say I have never sat down and tried to pinpoint my values. I try to "feel" things out as they come. I think I'm afraid if I "decide" on values, it won't be honest (because I'm not good at self-control or self-awareness), and I will come up to a point of cognitive dissonance between my projected value and the value I actually feel. So, until I learn to understand what I actually want, then I don't think I will honestly be able to pinpoint it.

Well, youve already highlighted a couple core values AND aspirational values in this paragraph. See if you can find them.

The thing about our value system is that it underpin every single things we do. And "values" I think is a misleading term because we look at it as though its something worthwhile or "valuable" when really, our values are our core beliefs, our core programming if you will. And they arent necessarily "valuable"

the core value then must be responsibility/accountability

honesty is a tool for maintaining that

which means i owe a thanks yet again

Adder wrote: I just think we all might tend to operate within habitual roles, developed through reinforcement over time, more then we might realize. So those could constitute core 'attributes' which we might shape to conform to values we think and/or feel are most important measures of self identity.

if not connecting to genuine aspiration, then we might just keep struggling to connect to them and end up developing a defeatist view of self as a result.

I don't think habit's are bad though, as I'd imagine they relieve the burden of processing a lot of information off the conscious mind by putting it into the subconscious capacities

You always manage to put things so eloquently

Yes, yes, and yes. I just wanted to highlight those three thoughts. And particularly the last one. Habits are simply an auto pilot bran function designed to free up awareness for other stuff. There is no inherent good or bad. certainly not on the part of the brain which does not make the distinction. Its simply a procedural thing.

Whether that habit is beneficial, or in line with our goals and aspirational values, is a different story.

from a somewhat martial perspective there is a very imortant distinction to be made between habbit - or routine - and procedure

procedure is set to preserve life

routines are exploited to inflict death

philosophically, habbituation creates both a kind of apathy as well as inflexibility

just because we are used to something does not make it ok

so i guess i am responding to the idea of habbituation described as "relieving the burden of processing" by applying my core value of accountability lol and noting that it on the positive side it does relieve the burden but from another angle it could be described as "avoiding the work of processing" which in some cases it would be healthier to accept - leading back to the value of responsibility

and the idea that we see ourselves everywhere we look - or maybe its just me? lol

anyway i understand that one of the results of meditation for instance is the ability to experience the same phenomena repeatedly and always as if it were the first time

also i have read that routines are one of the major causes of psychological stagnation

neurologocally it is new experiences which create new pathways which is another way of saying "brain exercize"
so that suggests reason to be scrutinous of habbits also