Analysis and Understanding of Personal Core Values of My Life
There are many personal values that are important to me. However, there are five that stand out above the rest. They are Honesty, Open-Mindedness, Optimism, Motivation, and Love. The purpose of this essay is to explain why each are important to me and compare/ contrast them with the AF Core values as well as describe how I can align them with the AF Core values or why they are already aligned.
Honesty is important to me because you cannot truly trust someone if they’re lying to you. Also, when I was younger and my dad realized we were lying to him, we got a large, healthy dose of discipline. This discipline terrified me to the point that lying is impossible for me anyways. Honesty is a huge part of integrity first since Integrity and Honesty are synonyms. Therefore, complying with this AF Core Value will never be a problem for me. Since honesty and integrity are the same thing, honesty is perfectly aligned with Integrity first. Honesty can also be aligned to Service Before Self in the way that, if someone asks you if a close coworker of yours did something wrong that was in violation of safety hazards, even though your personal feelings say you should not give them up, you have no choice.
Open-mindedness is important to me because I can’t stand people being hurt just because others don’t agree with their lifestyle. It’s no one else’s business who you love or what you do with your life so long as it’s not illegal and doesn’t directly involve someone else. Open-mindedness is a quality you need to some extent to comply with Service Before Self. For instance, there are people who claim they cannot complete their mission due to being involved with someone else who has a lifestyle they don’t like. Someone saying they can’t comply to performance of their mission due to such a closed-minded reason is unacceptable. Therefore, Open-mindedness is favorably aligned with Service Before Self because it keeps you from making a similar mistake.
Optimism is important to me because I know that being pessimistic tends to affect the people around you and it’s never okay to give someone else a bad day just because you’re having one. Also, I realized in Fifth grade that being sad all the time was no way to make friends. People avoid you like you have the plague. In this way, Optimism is sort of comparable to Service Before Self. If you fake optimism on a day you’re feeling down, it positively affects others around you, thereby making productivity in your shop better. Basically, ignoring your feelings rather than showing them aligns you with Service Before Self because you’re not lowering the morale of people around you. Optimism also contributes to Excellence in All We Do by causing you to not slow down your productivity with negative thoughts and an “I Can’t Do This” attitude. If you tell yourself “I Can Do This” instead you tend to do a better job on what you’re working on as well.
Motivation is important to me because I feel like there’s no point in doing something if you don’t do a good job. If you must expend energy doing something anyways then doing the best you can do makes it worth the time you spent. Unfortunately, this meant for creative projects in high school that I felt I could do, I tended to just not turn in the assignment. Luckily for me, I got over that when I graduated because this is inappropriate in the real world. Motivation can be compared to Excellence in All We Do because to be truly excellent, you need to have a certain level of motivation otherwise you’re not operating at your full potential and therefore cannot say you are excellent. Because I am usually highly motivated, I’m always performing the best I possibly can.
The value I hold the highest form of belief in is Love. This is because without love the quality of my life is greatly lessened and I feel like there’s nothing to really fight for. If I didn’t love my country, I never would’ve joined the military. If I didn’t love my husband, I never would’ve gotten married and initiated the emotional support group that is marriage. However, love is something that can sometimes contrast with Service Before Self. If something happens to someone you love, your rate of work production plummets, it’s hard to focus on work, and you sometimes find yourself not focusing on work as much as you would normally. I plan to align this value, so it doesn’t interfere with Service Before Self by reminding myself of why I joined in such a situation because my love for my country overshadows my love for any one person on the planet.
