Family is a core value

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.

~ Mother Teresa

Yesterday morning, while catching up with a highly accomplished friend, I mentioned that because family had once again become a core value, I found myself neglecting other aspects of my life.

My friend reminded me that a coach had once told her that family is not a core value.

A core value is a fundamental belief that guides a person’s decisions, actions, and priorities.

When someone says family is a core value, it usually means that:

• Family time is prioritized.

• There is a strong sense of responsibility and loyalty toward relatives.

• Major life decisions (career, location, relationships) are influenced by family considerations.

At different times in our lives, we prioritize other core values more strongly. For example:

• Independence

• Friends

• Career achievement

• Health

• Personal growth

• Faith or spirituality

To achieve mastery, an elite performer must pour everything into their work. But prolonged neglect of family, health, social connection, and personal growth is not sustainable.

Core values are personal — they reflect what matters most to us. We must choose wisely.

Periodically identifying our core values and living in congruence with them is wise.

Closing thoughts

Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.

~ John F. Kennedy

Prolonged neglect of family, a building block of a healthy community, leads to our personal and collective demise.

Someone in the family has to be supported in the quest to manage a healthy and functional home especially when there are children around. Children are our most valuable resource.