One way I can help Find My Nineveh while serving a sentence that will require me to be apart from my family is to help others be more self-sufficient. This concept led me to learn more about people that go through the criminal justice system. Many of those people come from lives of hardship. They struggle to find meaningful employment upon release. I wanted to help.
With an aim of showing the strategies that work for me, I show people how to make values-based decisions. Below, I list the six values that help me to make better decisions. They include:
- Faith
- Family
- Friends
- Fitness
- Finance
- Fun
I encourage people to think about what is most important in their life.
Are actions congruent with daily goals?
When we write a laundry list of things that are important to us, we put ourselves in a better position to advance. For example, consider the following exercises:
- Imagine yourself at your own funeral. What kinds of things would you want people to say about you?
- Think about your character. Think about the life you’re living, and contrast those thoughts with the way you would like your life to be.
Another valuable exercise would be to identify core values.
- What core values define your life?
- For example, you might see yourself as being honest, loyal, loving, spiritual, healthy, friendly, enthusiastic, good humored, a hard worker, self-directed and motivated.
- Prioritize your core values in order of importance.
The following steps may help as well:
- Define your core values in your own words. Don’t copy definitions from the dictionary. Rather, use your mind to tell us what each value means to you.
- Identify all your roles in your life. Example:
- son/daughter
- brother/sister
- friend
- boyfriend/girlfriend
- God’s child
- student
- athlete
- Create a vivid version of each of these roles.
- Think of the ideal picture of each role. How do you want others to see you?
- Write out your value system in order of priority?
- Do your actions show these values are truly important to you?
- If not, why not?
- What do you need to do to improve?