What Do You Value: A Simple Test

An excellent way to test people’s values is to observe what we do when we don’t have to do anything, how we spend our leisure time, how we spend our extra money.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson

What is important to you? I mean, what’s really important?

We all want to say things like “family” or “peace” or “faith”, but is that really what we value in life? The easiest way to determine what our priorities are in life are by looking at two things: our calendar and our bank account.

We make the time for the stuff that’s really important to us. We schedule it out. We clear the space to do it. Even if it means we are going to stay up a little later or if it means packing our schedule more than we would really like, we’ll do it because it’s important to us.

I have found at this time in my life that I have to schedule a lot of things, or else, they aren’t going to happen. It’s not like when I was living carefree in my high school and college days (if only I could let that guy know that this was the easiest time in his life!) when I could just call up a friend, and 20 minutes later we’d be hitting the golf course. I haven’t played golf in 6 or 7 years. I haven’t been to the driving range in 5. Golf is clearly not a priority in my life right now, even though I really did enjoy playing when I was younger.

The fact of the matter is that everybody is busy, but we still make the time for the stuff we really want to do.

When I say “bank account”, I do not mean how much is in it. I’m not concerned about that. Whatever our bottom line looks like, where we spend our extra money – if it’s $5 or $50,000 – also shows what is important to us.

I don’t typically carry around a lot of cash. If I have a $20 bill in my wallet, it’s a banner day. But, do you know what that cash typically gets spent on? Food (and/or beverages). I like to eat. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

What do you buy if you have $20 in your pocket? Answering that question is a start to understanding what is really important. So, when we look at where our money goes, it tells us what is really important to us.

And, again, I’m talking about extra money here. The money what we have after our bills are paid. Utilities, rent/mortgage, groceries, basic stuff for life… I’m not talking about that spending. (Although, perhaps what we put on our credit cards, and what things we have to make regular payments on, give us some insight as well.)

So, what’s important to you? Take some time to evaluate your priorities. Look at your calendar. Look at where your extra money goes. Is it reflective what what you really want in your life? If so, great! If not, how can you make some shifts in your life to get better alignment.