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Values, Personal

Personal values are those values that people adopt as principles that guide their life. They are values precisely because they are valuable to the person. The person freely chooses to give them “value” for guiding behaviors and actions in all aspects of his or her life, from family life to working and social life.

If, for instance, a person plays a sport such as tennis, his or her personal sports values will be reflected on the court. Something similar happens at home or at work. “Fair play,” for instance, as a personal value, may be as important on the tennis court, at work, or with friends. The person, although having different dimensions, such as social, interpersonal, communicative, financial, or spiritual, is one and unique. Therefore, if an individual wants to be coherent and consistent with what he or she thinks, says, and does, the person must also show this coherence of values in all levels of life. In this way, the personal values should cover in a transverse way the different fields of personal conduct, from sports to professional life.

Personal values help the person at the moment of choosing, distinguishing the decisions, or actions to be undertaken. Personal values are determining factors when deciding whether to go in one direction or another. For instance, a person who decides not to join a company because it would involve certain dishonest actions has honesty as an action criterion and personal value when doing business. Joining such a company would contradict the individual's personal value.

Development and Cohesiveness of Values

Personal values are one of the points of cohesion between the different facets of the person. Just as cement is necessary to join one brick to another and build a solid building, personal values are the cement of our life. Without them, the personal building can be built but the risk of collapse is much greater.

Everyone has values, including those who deny having them. The denial of personal values—explicit or not—is also a choice. The person is free to be able to state: “I do not have personal values. I do not believe in them.” Another very different question is that people are very aware of their personal values and put them into day-to-day practice. In fact, the important thing is that their personal values are shown in their actions, that the level of awareness of personal values is present in daily life. But it is also true that there are people who are not entirely aware of the relevance of personal values.

All effort directed toward placing emphasis on the discovery, development, and consolidation of personal values is not in vain. In this respect, childhood and adolescence are key stages of development in the formation of personal values, particularly through the family and school, although other social factors may be crucial in this formation. Personal values are present, in one way or another, in a person's actions and behaviors. In other words, people show certain values through their actions or omissions of what they do or do not do, and always from the freedom inherent to everyone. It is in this way, through the actions or omissions that are freely chosen, that people build their personal values. What people indeed do indicates what their personal values are. The actions, freely chosen, gradually build them as people.

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