Core Values

Jacob 4:10-11

"Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.

Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh."

I have been listening to some really great audio cd's on leadership and self-assessment.  It really helps to get me in the mind set of the way I should be conducting myself at work, and why.  And not only does it help me with the way I should be acting as a leader at work, but we are all leaders in our own right in our personal lives as well, and so I have been thinking along with the cd's in perpsective to my personal life as well.  I can't say that I have anything concrete at this moment in time to expound upon as far as things the cd's have taught me, but that's mainly because I have been listening to them solely whilst I drive.  I need to listen to them on my computer and take some notes.  I don't learn very well when I'm simply hearing or listening to something, I need to write it down, and that act of writing things down is how it imprints onto my brain.  Much like the notes I have been taking abouth the leadership training book that I have been reading.

One of the leadership principles that I jotted down from that book really struck a chord with me when I read it.  "People will not give you their hand until they can see your heart."  That really hit me.  I immediately think of missionary work when I think of that statement.  If the people you are trying to teach the gospel to don't see your face light up, if they don't see your unwavering belief in what you are saying, if they don't see your heart, they are NOT going to give you their hand because they're not convinced that even you believe what you are saying. And if they don't think you believe yourself, why should they believe you?

The same goes with every aspect of our lives.  If we want people to follow or to listen to us, we can't just blow smoke.  We have to show them that we are there for them and with them, every step of the way. This may seem like common sense to a lot of people, but even to those people I doubt they understand that this principle works in all walks of life and not just the ones in which they routinely demonstrate this characteristic.  

And the other statement that has really got me thinking is also an obvious one, but one that can really help people if they wrap their heads around it: "Our values are the beliefs that drive our behavior."  Think about that for a moment.  If we have a value, we act on it. Why do we do the things we do?  Because we believe the way we believe.  Every action we make in life (and these are my own words, not the words of the book that I'm just regurgitating) is a result of something we honestly believe.  If we lie to someone, then we honestly believe that the truth is not the best course of action currently.  If we pull over on the side of the road to help someone who might be stranded, then we honestly believe that person needs a helping hand and we honestly believe that we are the person who can and should help them. If we start a healthy routine in our life, tell everyone about it, and then stop doing it without people knowing, but we lead them on to think we're still doing it... then we honestly believe that misleading people is what we should be doing with our life at that moment.

That's not to say that we will always have the same values and that there is no hope for us if we happen to have a bad value at any given point in time.  But we can honestly trace everything we do in life back to our core values.  And inorder to change a habit, a reaction, an action, we have to change our value that led to that action.  It's much like my blog last night talked about. In order to combat sin, we have to change the way we look at sin as a whole.  In order to combat a bad habit, we have to change the way we look at the aspect of our life that created that habit.  

That is what develops our heart, which is what gets people to listen to us, to follow us, to love us. No one wants to follow a closed book or a locked door. Why? Because you don't know where they're leading you, what's inside of them, or why they do what they do.  People want to follow those who have a passion for something so much that they are willing to jump out of their chairs to share every detail of that passion with everyone that cares to know, or heck, people who don't care to know!

All of this has got me thinking about an even better way to spend my time in my car (because I do indeed spend a lot of time driving).  Instead of work-related audio cd's, instead of classical music (though that's good on occasion as well, mmm chopin), I should get some church audio cd's, make my own, find some to purchase, anything, and spiritually feed myself as I drive. That would definitely help me keep perspective on life and even the small details as I go about my day.