My Values

The Meaning of Life

I believe that the meaning of life is Love. Now, much of what I find makes this game so darn interesting is that Love is bigger than what our minds can comprehend, and so we all have different perspectives on what Love is. In fact, within our own selves, we each have a whole chorus of different voices, each with radically different perspectives on Love! We have our inner animal who is willing to kill to protect a loved one, our inner child who is scared of losing our parents' love, our inner teenager who is dreaming of fairy tale love, our inner achiever who is desperately trying to seem important in order to be worthy of love, our inner altruist who lives to give love to others, and our spiritual Self who sees how everyone and everything are already perfect manifestations of Love.

Perhaps the single greatest Truth that all the wisdom traditions agree on is that Love IS. Personally, I believe that at our core, we are all infinite, perfect, radiant Love — we just forgot that this is so, and the great Game of Life is our dance of evolving and developing to a place where we remember who we really Are. What irony — we are all made of love, yet all of human history is the often painful story of our learning to love!

Like the dance of colored lights through a stained glass cathedral as the sun rises and sets, each of our lives is our own personal interpretation and celebration of what it means to Love. We all share the same pure white source, and display it through the colored filters of our own consciousness. We all live our lives as a serenade to Love, yet each of us sing a different song.

All songs are beautiful and perfect, and yet some sing of pain, while others sing of joy. All of us are doing the best we know how, and yet most of us experience pain at times, telling us that we need to learn how to do better. Each of us is learning the same core lessons, yet we are each free to choose whether we learn through pain or through pleasure.

You know, for myself, after extensive experimentation, after many debates lasting all through the night, and after years of intense soul-searching, I have come to the radical conclusion that I prefer to learn and grow through pleasure rather than pain. In order to do so, I am continually striving to align my values to match up with the compass heading marked "love, joy, and fulfillment", and I am continually striving to live in integrity with those values.

Core Values

The following four values are the closest description I have come up with so far, for the compass heading my heart and spirit craves. These values are the target I aim for, painted on my heart.

1) Becoming Who I AM (Personal and Spiritual Growth)
This is my way of saying, in words that are particularly meaningful to me, that above all else, I value personal and spiritual growth. I value the process of becoming the best I can be, and I measure this primarily through the level to which I remember my innate spiritual, loving nature, and experience a loving connection with my Self. I have placed it as my top value, because I believe that I must "take care of myself, so I can help take care of others." I aspire to align myself with the loving and insistent hand of evolution — with the unstoppable force of Spirit-in-action — which calls us forward into consciousness of who we Are.

2) Giving and Receiving Love
I believe that love is like an electric current, created between the one who gives, and the one who receives. I aspire to share love with Spirit (my Self), with my personality (my self), with my friends and loved ones, and with the world. I aspire to contribute to this world from a place of service rather than ambition or significance. I aspire to "love my neighbor as myself", as my Mormon family has so spectacularly role modeled for me. I aspire to see others through the eyes of compassion and understanding. In each beautiful moment, I aspire to "only connect" with those I meet.

3) Experiencing Joy, Beauty, and Playfulness
I believe that life is meant to be savored and enjoyed! It is not a battle, but a dance, a game, a play, a song! "How can I share even more love and joy right now?" I aspire to savor the beauty, pleasure, magic, fun, laughter, and utter ecstasy that this fantastic life has to offer. I aspire to live in the moment of this NOW, while also choosing in each moment to share love and develop spiritually.

4) To Teach Love
While the first three values are universal, this one is personal for me. In addition to being here to live the three faces of Love, I am also here to teach others how to do so. I aspire to teach by example, by walking my talk. I aspire to create a space around me where others are naturally inspired to learn and grow. I aspire to help others learn how to better express their own unique paths. I aspire to remember that everyone already has the answers within themselves. I aspire to lovingly, joyfully and laughingly be a light for others, as so many are for me.

Instrumental Values

The following nine values are some of the key tools I use to help me navigate through the wild and mountainous terrain which my path snakes through. They are things that I value in and of themselves, and also because they are necessary foundations for the expression of my core values.

5) Integrity and Integration
I aspire to be impeccable with my word, both with myself and with others. I aspire to ever higher levels of alignment between my thoughts, words, and deeds, and my values. I aspire to integrate the seeming dualities and conflicts in my life and consciousness, in to a unified, loving whole. I aspire to re-member my various fragments in order that I may remember who I really Am. I aspire to release the judgments and thoughts in my mind which create perceived separation from my Self, others, and Spirit.

6) Loving Self-Discipline
I aspire to practice ever higher levels of loving self-discipline, recognizing that freedom, growth, and self-trust all stem from this practice. I aspire to strive for excellence rather than perfection. I aspire to fully accept myself and others while also choosing to learn to grow and improve. I aspire to be committed to Love, no matter what it takes.

7) Health and Vitality
I aspire to practice loving self-nurturing of my physical, mental, and emotional health. I aspire to treat my mind and body to the most effective holistic wellness treatments available. I aspire to practice habits that promote energy and vitality. I aspire to exercise regularly and safely, get enough sleep, and to eat and drink those foods which will most serve my health and vitality.

8) Freedom
I aspire to financial freedom, by wisely and respectfully harboring money. I aspire to physical and political freedom, by actively participating in our democracy. I aspire to freedom over my time, by managing it consciously and by aligning my investments and commitments with my values. I aspire to freedom over fear, by working my process on both the inner and outer levels.

9) Surrender and Co-Creation
I aspire to practice mastery — full involvement without attachment to the outcome. I aspire to trust the voices of my heart and Spirit, and to focus on doing the "next right thing" in each moment. I aspire to trust that everyone is perfect just the way they are, while also aspiring to be of service in helping us learn how to do better.

10) Acceptance and Gratitude
I aspire to practice awareness and acceptance of reality, just the way it is, recognizing that this is the place from which I can most be of service to myself and others. I aspire to practice gratitude for everything I have been given, and for everything that is.

11) Humor and Laughter
I aspire to see and share the rich and abundant humor in life. I aspire to laugh hard and often, and to bring a smile to others' faces where possible. I aspire to remember that life really isn't that serious. I aspire to enjoy the ride!

12) Creative Self-Expression
I aspire to nurture and express my abundant creativity. I aspire to enthusiastically co-create expressions of joy, beauty, love, and truth, which can be of service to myself and others. I aspire to joyfully, creatively and completely sing my song, dance my dance, and play my part in this grand game called life.

13) Adventure and Pleasure
I aspire to seek out and savor the many joys, experiences, adventures, and pleasures that this life has to offer, and zestfully savor them through a slurpy sized straw.

As I strive to live my life according to my values, I strive to learn from each challenge I encounter. In particular, I am growing in the areas of my primary learning edges.