Intrinsic value is what is important to us, personally, and what our values are.
I sometimes hear people say, “This is what my values are,” or “I value this.” The problem is the value that’s important to you may not be important to me.
Intrinsic values change over time.
Many values change and evolve.
The problem is the value is really only important to you.
Your value is not really your value.
Your value may change.
Maybe you value compassion more than you used to, or kindness.
How do you define your values?
Do you define your values on a piece of paper?
Or do you define your values in your mind?
Can you define it in your mind?
If you can, then it’s valuable to you, personally. But if you can’t define it, it’s not really valuable to you. So you don’t really know whether your value is love or compassion or joy. If it’s just something you think of it’s just random. I don’t think most values are random. At least not intentionally.
I don’t think randomness is an objective quality. And if it’s just randomness then maybe it’s not really your value. I think your value is related to how you define it. If your definition of love changes then it’s no longer your love.
If your definition of compassion changes then it’s no longer compassion. Intrinsic values are non-random. Now sometimes values may change. One value may be more important than another. Sometimes a set of values will shift over time.
Sometimes values will shift slowly and just keep shifting. And other values may change quickly. At least one value may shift at any time.
But one value doesn’t always become less important. Sometimes values may even change to become more important.
One value may change from being something you can have to something you want to have.
One value may shift from being something that’s different from your work to something you work.
Many values change, for instance if the online casino PayPal supports is pitted against one not supported by the popular payment processor, it definitely has more value to someone who hails from a country supported by PayPal, doesn’t it?
What value is more important than your current value?
When you change your values it’s a good idea to change how you define them.
Let’s say you’re saving for retirement and you have four years or five years to save.
But if you’re saving for retirement by the end of this year it’s not necessarily a good value, it’s a more important value.
But if you’re saving by the end of this year it’s not necessarily a good value, it’s a more important value.
So what value is more important?
Once you change how you define something you can adjust your values. But if your values shift suddenly then it’s no longer good value. So you can’t set your values in a bubble. They can change quickly.
For example, you might say you value love but if your friend broke up with you it’s a terrible value. And if you don’t like your job you might not like it anymore. If your company decided to close down your job you might leave. And if you work for a company that doesn’t pay you a wage you might decide to quit.
You may not be working for a bad company, you may just not be working at a good value. So values can change and evolve over time.
