Personal Values Development

Essay by ShelbyKS May 2009

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

It has been said that everything a person needs to interact with other people is learned in kindergarten. Playing well with others, waiting your turn, respecting others, and honesty is the best policy. Life would be so much simpler if only this were true. However, personal values are a dynamic set of principles that are subject to constant updates, revisions and reassessment. The set that would work well in kindergarten does not hold true for someone in his or her golden years. The roles that an individual comprises in his or her lifetime are varied and complex in that some are done simultaneously. The role of wife is different from the mother's role as is the child from the adult. Identical twins separated at birth would have many of the same likes and dislikes but their life experiences would make them two completely different people. Organizations that one would either join freely such a church or subjected to as an arrest could have profound and possibly lifelong effect.

A significant experience such as narrowly avoiding death at the hands of a drunk driver potentially could skew a person's discernment from that point forward. Family, friends and those held in esteem can cause people to emulate for good or ill the patterns they have been exposed to in their life. Reevaluating and questioning is almost second nature to most people and how one seeks to implement change personally and professionally.

As children learning right from wrong was tough and generally in our limited world drastic consequences follow when one is caught doing wrong. As a child this writer was caught stealing from a candy store, the result of the thievery was a smack to the bottom and a trip back to the store to admit a wrong-doing, at the time this...