Why Core Values Have Been Forgotten
By: Roy Cook
Tags: Core Values, Fulfillment, Peace Of Mind, Success, Financial Independence

Why Core Values Have Been Forgotten

Few Understand and Fewer Teach its Power

Source: Unsplash — Johannes Andersson

About thirty years ago, the concept of putting together one’s purpose, core values, goals, and tasks as part of the integrated whole was given emphasis. It was determined that personal values had to be determined first, prior to determining our goals.

Two men, who were business partners, gave lectures and wrote books and articles about core values and their importance. Stephen Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Hyrum Smith wrote What Matters Most: The Power of Living Your Values. Both took different approaches.

Covey’s book was more comprehensive and sold over 25 million copies. Smith’s book was focused on core values, which he called governing values. The process outlined in my book was more directly influenced by What Matters Most.

The reason for determining values first is that, for perhaps the first time, thought leaders like Covey and Smith felt that core values were inherent in each individual. We began to understand that values are part of us.

This emphasis on personal values has lessened dramatically in the last three decades. Now, few understand core or governing values and how to use them. Few blog or write anything about them anymore. But when you get one of my later blogs (filled with only quotations by well-known people), you’ll see how many successful people have been aware of values and their benefits.

Today, most self-help material focuses on what the best goal system is, on what to do before going to bed, when to get up, when to journal and meditate, and many other productivity hacks.

Why Society No Longer Focuses on Core Values

Why did much of the teaching of core values that was published in books and seminars, especially those by the FranklinCovey company, disappear? One explanation is that the two principals of that company, Hyrum Smith and Stephen R. Covey, the major drivers of this knowledge, retired. Covey then died in 2012, followed by Hyrum Smith in 2019.

We now see very few books, podcasts, or blogs about core values. It is astonishing that this has happened. Why do I say that? Well, if I told you that you have an internal compass that, when followed, would likely give you fulfillment and inner peace, wouldn’t you want to make use of it?

If this is your cup of tea, there is a simple way to discover your core values. It does not take several years. It can be done in days. These blogs will start you on the right path. My book (published in January 2021) will finish the job by showing you how to discover your unique internal core values.

I hope that you now have a clearer picture of why core values are so little known and discussed.

Focus on Core Values, First

Here’s the rub: core values precede goals. We create goals, but core values are inherent within us, closest to our heart. Those who focus on goals first are chasing “things.” That’s the whole purpose of a goal. Those who focus on their values are all about “being.” Being trumps things. Once you know your core values, you can then set goals.

Core values are understood to be an inherent part of each individual. Most of us have ten to twenty core values. Hyrum Smith and Covey wrote and taught about this to thousands of people throughout the world. Hyrum Smith even made a promise: if one bases his life on his core values, making daily decisions in concert with those core values, he will live a fulfilled life with peace of mind.

Smith and Covey felt that it was foolish to work on goals unchained from a person’s values. Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone devote their time, money, and resources toward accomplishing goals that didn’t line up with their values?

If you have ten to twenty inherent core values, that would make up less than 5 percent of the total number of values (400+). That means that you have said “no” to 95 percent of all values. Steve Jobs would be proud of you.

What might have you accomplished if you had limited your actions only to the 5 percent of all values that are inherent within you? For one, unrecoverable time would not have been wasted on a high number of decisions, activities, podcasts, books, articles, and blogs that are inconsistent with your values.

I started acting on my core values in 1993, after studying core values. I discovered the eleven that are unique to me and started defining them, testing them, and making all life decisions based upon them.

I retired eleven years later.

I exceeded my lifetime financial goals, and that was just one result. In other areas of my life, equally positive changes occurred.

A Goals-Based Life Disconnected from Core Values Is Inefficient and Ineffective

Why waste time focusing on inappropriate goals? Your core values relate to the things that are closest to your heart and hence will give you the most satisfaction, the most fulfillment.

Some have written about powerful and effective goal systems, but do you really want to do the thing right or do the right thing? You want to do the right thing. With your limited time, shouldn’t you focus only on the things that are closest to your heart and critical to your future?

Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose.

— Unknown

Have you noticed that there are differences between you and other people in terms of integrity, honesty, spirituality, enthusiasm, determination, interest in giving back, focus on health, diet, exercise, etc.? These come from the differences in values within each of us. It would be hard to find anyone who has all the same core values you have.

Remember the Productivity Pyramid?

In the past thirty years, we have moved away from identifying our internal core values. We have ignored our personal foundation, and we have moved to being primarily focused on our goals and various productivity hacks. That is very inefficient and unfocused. If you take the time to find your ten to twenty core values, you will have a head start on someone who has no idea about their values.

If you don’t start by defining your core values first and instead focus on your goals first, you become a goals-based person. How does a goals-based person make her decisions on which goals to pursue? By intuition, by what feels good, by what she just read (written by those whose values she may not share). That can often lead to success or failure, simply by chance.

How could following someone who has written about seemingly very good goals or productivity hacks but does not share your core values guarantee success? Can you be certain that someone else’s goals-based system will work with your values? It may work sometimes, but are you willing to bet your life on it?

Some of the time when you are honoring your core values, you may experience what I call “flow.” You may not be aware of the passage of time or events around you. You will start to experience fulfillment and peace of mind.

Fulfillment and peace of mind are unusual experiences for most and unlikely to be experienced much by those who have no knowledge of their core values. Of course, anyone could luck out and live according to one or a few of their own core values. Even a clock that has stopped working is correct twice a day!

It also means to begin each day with those values firmly in mind. Then as the vicissitudes, as the challenges come, I can make my decisions based on those values. I can act with integrity. I don’t have to react to the emotion, the circumstance. I can be truly proactive, value driven, because my values are clear.[1]

— Stephen R. Covey

My next blog will list the core values of two very well known people plus my own. That should give you a better picture of exactly what core values are.

This is the fifth blog on this subject. Each blog can stand alone or can be viewed as a comprehensive look on the why and how finding and living by your core values can change your life. Dramatically!

I’ve written a book about the importance of discovering and using core values which will be published in January 2021 — A Fool’s Errand: Why Your Goals Are Falling Short and What You Can Do About It.

If you’d like me to email you the first chapter and notify you when the book is published, please add your email here: https://mailchi.mp/592c9a435a29/a-fools-errand. (Until then, I promise to share with you the power of core values via blogs 2–3 times per week.)

[1] Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Free Press, 1989.