clarifying your deepest, innermost values video & process

By: Bruce Dickson
Bruce co-founded the Holistic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. A trained Waldorf teacher, he's also USM, Peace Theological Seminary, BreakThrough Parenting and NVC-trained. His professional ...

The trap of merely superficial values

One blog invites people to share their deepest, innermost value publicly online. 250 values have been added. Many people respond to the question with a word or phrase, or even several phrases: honesty, family, my kids, and so on.  

If you arrive at a deepest, innermost value, authentic for you, this is synonymous with what is sacred to you.  Mark’s deepest, innermost value is “compassion.” However it’s very clear many people approach the topic very superficially. 

“My family” is a nice value and you may be willing to die to protect your kids.  However, “my family” is NOT thereby a deepest, innermost value. If you did sacrifice your life to save your kids, “self-sacrifice” is your deepest, innermost value. “Mom,” “apply pie” and “my kids” are not optimal responses here because when you die, you and they part ways. Nor are “deepest, innermost values” the same as words for those values.  You do not have your deepest, innermost value on the tip of your tongue. 

Deepest values are what you build a lifetime on. Go for ultimates. What is ULTIMATE for you?

To uncover your innermost value takes a deliberate process of introspection. This will always be more FUN to do as a social learning experience. You want to go deep on this. If you have your deepest, innermost value on the tip of your tongue–go deeper. You’re not there yet. 

Values and the leadership drought of the moment

Enlightened (whole-brained) leadership always has a narrative based on personal, deepest, innermost values. Effective whole-brained leaders develop this into narratives that have potential to become cultural momentum as Lincoln, Ghandi and MLKing did. These three whole-brained thinkers remain the gold standard of “leadership” going forward now.  

Values clarification originally was an intellectual, paper and pencil journaling kind of activity. That wasn’t much fun.  How about a FUN social-learning activity for groups of all kinds?

Any time spent on turning values clarification into a social learning process is time well spent. “What is your deepest, innermost value?” is a strong place to begin nurturing centripetal, center-seeking forces, in group process, locally, nationally and internationally. 

Values clarification is an old topic perhaps finally gaining some traction as a FUN, interactive social learning activity. The latest beginning is Mark Robert Waldman’s influential 19 min TED talk video HERE: 

TEDxConejo – Mark Robert Waldman – 03/27/10 – He begins the main topic at 13 minutes in. Towards the end he invites everyone to respond to this question:  “What is your deepest, INNERMOST value? This is your big idea” “If you meditate on your big idea, it changes your brain. If attended to for 45 minutes, for that day, you will begin to see the world more that way” because you are affirming the brain connections you prefer and wish to have more of. This is how we change our perception, by changing our unconscious habits.

See more on Mark Waldman

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