Ought To Ought Toos

I’ve have a lot of success over the past few weeks uncovering my core values, and the process brought some questions to mind.

First the “strange” thoughts.
Is God “or whatever you want to call god” evolving and growing?
Is Man God’s highest expression in the physical world? (At least, that we know of!)
What if whales and dolphins had hands?
Does God experience the physical world through sentient beings?

Now, to the “ought to ought toos”.

When I finally nailed down my values I had some questions about values I felt ought to be core values. The values that I “wished” I had because I knew they would bring more power and balance to my life were: “Hard Work”, “Health”, “Decisiveness”, “Gratitude”, and “Family/Friends”. Then a question crossed my mind, “Why would these values present themselves to me so clearly and strongly if they weren’t already core values for me?” Here is an answer that, I believe, has some truth in it. (I’m not absolutely certain, but I’m leaning this way. Consider the following and get back with me on your thoughts.) “Hard Work”, “Health”, “Decisiveness”, “Gratitude”, and “Family/Friends” (the values I want to adopt as core values) already ARE core values for me – otherwise I wouldn’t recognize the importance OF them FOR me. These are values that my “self” is trying to tell me that I need to work on. These are the “ought toos” that really are GENUINE “ought toos”. These values aren’t the ones the WORLD is telling me to value, they are the ones that “I” am telling me are important – you know – the REAL me, the SELF! My other values – the ones I uncovered more easily are the ones that come more naturally – they don’t require as much work for me: Learning, Genuineness, Creativity, Practicality and Freedom, but “Hard work”, “Health”, “Decisiveness”, “Gratitude”, and “Family/Friends” are areas my true self is telling me to pay more attention to. These are values that have a lot of power for me, but I need to focus on them more to bring about fulfillment and balance. If they weren’t core values for me I wouldn’t recognize them as being so important.

That brings me to another thought: “Are there a few “true core” values that are common to all humans”? I would like your thoughts on this. One thing I am feeling more and more that is a “TRUTH” is that all of us – regardless of what our core values are – use our values as an expression of the “non-physical SELF” in the physical world. Values exist in, for lack of better words, a continuum – sort of an interconnected grid if you will. They work together to support one another. Even “negative” or “conflicting” values are part of the continuum and our understanding of those negative values are all filtered through our egos and our paradigms.

Knowing our values living by them, and living our lives in balance gives us a solid, solid, solid, solid, solid foundation from which to act, set goals, and develop plans with self-confidence; and self-confidence is the bedrock of success!!!

The Interconnectedness of Values:
Discover Your Core Values:

In response to themadcookieman’s post:
Wow MCM – You have done it again! Very insightful.
I agree that the “ought to have” core values are ones that clearly already exist in you, as you recognise them as ones you “should” have in order to be your best self.
However, I disagree that they are common to all humans. Remember some human beings are not in a good place emotionally – which means their value for good health is overshadowed by them continuously hitting the ‘self-destruct’ button. To some, unfortunately their natural default mode is to self destruct and not to protect or want the best for themselves – this could be due to guilt, lack of self-forgiveness, belief that they do not deserve the best and simply bad programming. Our negative values exist in our Ego as you said – BUT, what is to say that we cant allow them to totally take over if we choose to?? Sad, but true.

Your natural will to want the best for yourself is wonderful and not to be overlooked as human ‘survival’ techniques….because not everyone wants or believes they deserve the best. Your understanding of what you “ought to value” could be seen as your subconscious giving you hints, God whispering clues to you to achieve your goals…. perhaps????

I believe that the “ought to’s” are our inner voice….our intuition, that has been created by the knowledge and wisdom that have entered our lives and drip fed into our belief system. Its what we instinctively know….you know??

Hope this makes sense.

This discussion made me think of Maslow.

In response to themadcookieman’s post:
LOL – I have not come across this before but the funniest thing happened when I read this – ironically….I started thinking about what I ‘ought to be valuing’….e.g safety of property! I must remember to lock the main doors when I leave my flat!!!