The Courage of Values – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

One word that sums up who we are, and why it’s so hard to live by

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

I hold three core values: passion, courage and meaning. Whatever I do or aspire to needs a dash of passion. When I’ve done things halfway, and I still do sometimes, the cause is always the same: I’ve drifted from my life purpose and stopped living my values. Courage is that itch to dream something up and keep fighting until it’s real. And meaning, now more than ever, is what matters most to me: doing work that gives me wellbeing because it fits who I am.

We all have core values, and when our actions express them, they reveal our character and the best of what we’re made of. That’s why this post is about courage. Living a life true to your values takes nerve. Integrity shows up when who you are on the outside matches what you think and carry inside.

Dr. Mario Alonso Puig defines a value as whatever makes me better. In an organization, values set the culture it wants to live. In any setting, whatever moves us toward or away from our values becomes a decision tool, telling us what to do and what to avoid. There are fine examples of people and institutions that, in the roughest waters, turned to their values first and asked: How do our values serve us right now? What decision are they pointing us toward?

A values-driven life comes with personal responsibility, from knowing your values to practicing them every day. Like exercise, eating well or respecting others, it’s a habit you build through repetition. In business, a company must know which values guide it or will guide it. If the founder’s values aren’t clear, the team should define them together, because for an organization, as for a person, knowing them is a serious social responsibility.

Why is it so hard to live your values? For organizations, attracting talent is always tough, and attracting talent that shares the company’s values is tougher still. Look across or up and down any organization and you’ll find people living some blend of their own values and the company’s. The key is to gauge how well those align, because that is, and will remain, one of this century’s great challenges if we want to unlock the full potential of organizations and their people.

On a personal level, the hard part is the change your values demand. Once you know them and are aware of them, you can’t stay in your comfort zone doing business as usual. That tension lasts until you finally choose to live by what makes you better and makes you a better person.

We attract people who share our values. Knowing them, staying aware of them, practicing them and passing them on every day is demanding work. As the song goes, "I never promised you a rose garden". What counts about the courage to live your values is the results. Every time we attract something true to who we are, or to who the organization is, we leave a legacy and a better world than the one we found.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

This week’s VELA:

• What I’ve been Viewing: Talent in life is the ability to learn. An interview and Q&A with Toni Nadal, Rafael Nadal’s coach (and uncle). His coaching style struck me as unique. At times he seems to push past every limit, emotional ones included. What really grabbed me is that Nadal always trains "as if he were in a championship match". This video left its mark on me, especially on how I approach my workouts, the goals I set and knowing who I’m really competing against. As a coach, the title alone hooked me, and I watched it start to finish. Well worth it.
• What I’ve been Listening to: The hidden nature of man. I’ve read next to nothing about Freud, and this is a good first step into his work (purely as a hobby). I listened to it during an endless afternoon of traffic between home and the university. The narration is engaging, and it explains the beginnings of psychoanalysis in a simple, practical way. Again, worth a listen or a watch.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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