Experiencing More Success in Business and Life by Reconsidering Our Personal Value System

What do I work for?

Recommendations for physical actions, in the form of how to do this or how to achieve that, are all well and good.

But what about our value system to begin with?

The very paradigm encompassing how we define success, and set the goals prompting us to whatever actions we may want recommendations for.

What are our personal definitions of success, purpose, and value?

To have more time? More money? More security? More enjoyment? Everyone can have their own, no argument there.

But on an individual level, having a deliberate value system can help us maintain clearer focus on the ends we pursue and the means we employ. Leading us to appreciate both, as we work to build continuity between them.

Such a paradigm encompasses our relationship not only to value, but purpose, work, success, and meaning as well, among others.

And not just for business—but for life as a whole.

With this article, we aim to share:

• Some of our own experience with the process of finding and embracing one’s personal value system.

• Actionable insight for anyone interested in doing the same.

We hope that this thought-provoking and practical invitation to introspection and mindfulness will prove a valuable stepping stone for those looking to experience more success and fulfillment in life and business.

At the core of personal perception: our value system

What has value to me?

Whatever our individual answers, multiple key perceptual aspects derive from it—consciously or not.

Pursuing what has value to us defines our purpose. This purpose gives meaning to our actions, and also allows us to discern and focus on what we want. Finally, the pursuit of our purpose determines our perspectives on success and growth.

This personal notion of value, and all the concepts derived from it, form our personal value system.

As such, this value system sits at the core of what individually drives us to action: motivation.

A breakdown of our perception mechanisms, based on this personal value system and its motivational ramifications, can be as follows:

1. We have a certain value system, based on what we consider valuable, and from which we derive purpose and meaning, discernment and focus, and our definitions for success and growth.

2. This value system is part of the prism of our individual perception, through which we look at everything—our mindset or outlook, which also includes our beliefs.

3. As such, we aim for goals which are in line with this value system.

4. This motivational setup acts as a starting point for most if not all of our deliberate actions, i.e., our attitude, and also crystallizes our expectations in relation to these actions and the pursuit of our goals.

5. It in turn leads to our experience of the results of our deliberate actions: we weigh these results against our expectations and the goals that prompted our actions, on the scales of our value system.

6. Finally, the data from this empirical assessment feeds back into the prism of our personal perception, affecting our outlook and beliefs.

And so on, in an iterative process combining perception and action—the sum of which makes for a great part of the individual existence we experience.

Okay, so the value system we operate on has a foundational influence on our personal perception—and how we experience work and life. So what of it?

Well, the catch is that, whatever value system we individually operate on, it isn’t always one we’ve consciously chosen ourselves.

And upon closer inspection, that’s why we often find the heart and the mind don’t give the same answer to our original question: what has value to me?

Deliberately defining value and purpose

So where does my value system come from?

Oftentimes, we’ve unconsciously inherited the value system that we operate on. Through upbringing, education, and peer pressure, to only name a few.

So much so that the very notion of a value system we can consciously choose isn’t something a lot of us even have considered before.

Consequently, when looking to mindfully pursue goals that align with what genuinely has value for us, it can be wise to deliberately stop for a moment and reconsider the value system we operate on.

So we can make sure we choose one that we’re happy with.

Owning our perspective on value is also an integral part of taking responsibility for our actions. Which makes it a defining step in our personal and collective journeys towards greater freedom, sovereignty, purpose, meaning, fulfilment, and enjoyment.

So, we reiterate on this basic question, though slightly amended: what genuinely has value to me?

It’s through the answer to this question that the realignment of the mind value to the genuine heart value can happen—and that our consciously considered personal value system can be built.

For us, at Oryzon Studio, the answer is enjoyment. Genuine enjoyment. Doing things that bring us and the people we interact with genuine enjoyment: the kind that leaves no regret, and which kindles vitality.

At least, that’s what has value to us as individuals.

So we approach our work through Oryzon Studio as an opportunity to professionally collaborate on generating and disseminating value leading to genuine enjoyment, through multiple initiatives.

If you’ve read any of our other articles, you’ve seen how central enjoyment is to what we do: in selecting the tools we use, designing work processes, measuring results of processes and projects, and managing collaborations.

This is also why we aim to work on initiatives that resonate with us, carried by passion-driven people, as these are the ones that lead to enjoyment all around:

• enjoyment through the process for the clients and us;

• enjoyment through the results for the clients, us, and the end users.

Mindfully experiencing success

So how can I enjoy success?

Once we’ve acknowledged what genuinely has value for us, we can work towards manifesting it in our lives.

This means that, by consciously considering what genuinely has value to us personally, and deliberately making it our purpose to experience it, we can reclaim our own definition of success.

Therefore, whenever we get to enjoy what’s genuinely valuable to us, we experience success and the associated feeling of fulfillment.

It may vary in scale and scope, but this is how we see the connections between the concepts of value, success, and the feeling of fulfillment.

Still, to enjoy this genuine value and experience success and fulfillment, it seems necessary also to:

• cultivate / maximize our ability to acknowledge the value we pursue when we find ourselves in its presence;

• cultivate / maximize our ability to enjoy this value, in both life and business.

If we’re oblivious to value when it shows up, or find ourselves too worn out or inured to enjoy it when we do detect it, then what fulfilling success can we hope to experience?

And yet, it seems that, for many of us, the idea of success is inherently tied to:

• a somewhat distant future;

• intangibility;

• a behavior of holding one’s breath and bolting down—with the vague hope that success will come to us at some point;

• the idea that success is something external to us, and which should be validated by others.

Much like value systems, these preconceived notions are ones we’ve inherited without always realizing it.

But, as we’ve discussed, reclaiming our personal definition of value leads to redefining success for ourselves as well, as our access and fulfilling enjoyment of that genuine value.

So to make the most of our deliberate value system, and counter-act “old” habits and perspectives, we can also step into our personal ability—and responsibility—to acknowledge value and enjoy it.

This ties into another key notion that we get to make our own: gratitude.

The way we see it, gratitude is about three things:

1. being present and conscious;

2. acknowledging the genuine value we have access to and manifest;

3. leaning into the fulfilling enjoyment of this value.

In other words, gratitude is about mindfully gardening, while remembering to stop and enjoy the smell of the roses that have already bloomed.

Unlike yet another unconsciously inherited perspective, this means that gratitude is not about “settling”.

The genuine aspect of the value we pursue prevents it from being so: we’re not settling when we experience whatever’s genuinely valuable to us personally.

The mindful cultivation of gratitude on a daily basis therefore helps us both in acknowledging and enjoying the value in our business and life.

Furthermore, it opens up connections to additional empowering notions, such as abundance and expansion.

Indeed, when we acknowledge the value in our life and business, we are acting from a grateful and serene place of abundance—rather than a greedy and fearful place of lack.

It is our experience that actions started from such a frame of mind are much more conducive to enjoyment, value generation, and expansion.

All of which subsequently lead to more gratitude and success. Yep.

In a nutshell

In business and life, it can be all too easy to lose sight of the why’s and what for’s. And in the case of success and value, we face amounts of peer pressure and pre-existing mental conditioning we’re not even completely aware of.

Still, there can be no experience of success if we don’t know what success is to us, or don’t let ourselves acknowledge or enjoy value when we encounter it.

So, when it comes to what one dedicates their work to, and bases a lot of their daily life on, it seems worth taking some time to actively reconsider what genuinely has value for us personally.

Even more so when we realize how foundational the personal value system we operate on is to our overall perception–and our experience of life at large.

Thus can we reclaim our own empowering definition of success: the fulfilling enjoyment of what’s genuinely valuable to us.

Then, by mindfully cultivating gratitude, we acknowledge the value in what we do and have access to on a daily basis—experiencing success and fulfillment on our terms, in business and life.