Top Five Values

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Top Five Values

Values are the fundamental beliefs of a person. These principles denote the magnitude of the significance of something, aiming to ascertain the best actions and the best way to live. On such, values dictate behavior and serves to assist individuals in learning the difference between what is vice or virtue. In other words, values are essential in the way people live their day-to-day lives. This paper will address my top five values, and more importantly, how they impacted my life. My five values are commitment, courage, empathy, honesty, and generosity.

Commitment is one of the values that I learned since I was young. My parents emphasized that I should be committed to whatever I felt it was working for me and would have made my life better. I learned that it is only through commitment; I was willing to sacrifice and move away from my comfort zone. Since I was young, it has not been my thing to concentrate so much on schoolwork. However, my career needed at least getting a formal education. I had to dedicate myself to learning to achieve what I have now. For sure, if I had failed to commit myself to learn, perhaps I could be in a gruesome situation right now.

Courage is the ability to gain strength in the face of pain or even doing something that frightens you. Growing up, I always witnessed racial discrimination in our town. The whites frequently abused and even killed African Americans. Many people ignored the matter since they feared what might come into their way. Those acts continued even at my workplace, where the manager and other white employees racially decimated blacks. One day, I witnessed my manager insulting my colleague. I could not just sit there and enjoy the show; I stood up for him and confronted the manager and warned those several others who were indecently acting like him. I told him I would file a lawsuit against him because such acts are unacceptable as all people are the same. Indeed, I felt like that was the most courageous thing I have ever done in my life.

In life, it is always a nice thing to show empathy to other people. Through empathy, one can understand and share feelings with other people. Being empathetical means that you know other people’s experiences from within their frame of reference. In our country, the most common problem that faces African American people is racial prejudice. Of course, it feels depressing being discriminated based on your race irrespective of your needs. At least the place I am working, I am working hard to let people know that we are all humans with feelings. There is no superior race, and it always right to consider how other people feel instead of being selfish.

Honesty is another value that I cannot afford to miss. As a moral character, honesty connotes virtues of life attributes such as integrity and truthfulness. Imagine being entrusted to lead a particular organization or department, only to be fired due to your dishonest acts. I have been working for six months at the local restaurant as a cashier. Being honest is something I learned from my parents since I was young. Guest usually leave tips for the waiters at the cashier desk. Being honest is a value that is helping me in my daily job. I have never been attempted to steal tips for my colleagues nor even money belonging to the restaurant.

Generosity comes as my last value in the list. Generosity is the quality of being kind and liberal in giving. In the world we are living today, many people are disadvantaged and the only way to offer them hope for tomorrow is through our generosity. Millions of people across the world sleep hangry while other people are busy wasting food and showing off their wealth. In my life, I have always vowed to help the needy ones no matter how little it can be, to them is significant. On such, I normally buy food and take to homeless people struggling to feed themselves.

The above five values are the most significant in my life. I feel empathy and generosity are the most significant values out the five since they both address the attributes of caring and being compassionate to other people.