I was reading Mark McGuinness Motivation for Creative People and for once, I was doing my homework.
He suggests writing down your values; the things that drive you. He gave a short list for you to sort from highest to lowest, then added in dozens more. A few of the original list values didn’t make it onto my second list.
It ended up being this in no particular order:
- Knowledge
- Creativity
- Justice
- Diversity
- Generosity
- Prosperity
- Discipline
- Courage
- Integrity
- Professionalism
Huh. Interesting. Some of these surprise ME.
Why did I choose these?
- Knowledge defeats the darkness of ignorance
- Creativity brings joy to myself and to others – painting, plays, opera, stories – even arranging a garden or a house is creative
- Justice is vital to the world – without it we fall into the dark places
- Diversity IS the world; why ignore it?
- Generosity – again – without it – we let others down.
- Prosperity – is good for us all – the true trickle down.
- Discipline – without it you don’t get much done.
- Courage – taking the first step may be the hardest part, but it’s not easy to keep walking.
- Integrity ties into being able to trust and believe people and it also means being whole and undivided
- Done is better than perfect but it sure helps if it’s done well.
So perhaps I should make one of my goals giving away a part of whatever I earn from my writing? It seems to be a much stronger value to me than even I realised.
Links:
Motivation for Creative people