The Competition

My most difficult challenges are when I find myself stretching one value to meet another. There are always gaps and compromises between personal values - this isn't a judgement, just an objective snapshot of value reality. There are few Budhas and Jesus's walking among us today.

Generally speaking, there is little at risk during most competing value struggles. For example, I want to lose weight but don't exercise in order to create more time to spend with family. It's a minor value struggle that pits the value of a healthy life style against the value of family.

Sometimes the struggle can become deeply personal and occasionally the stakes are much higher. An example of this is sacrificing family time to devote enough time to a demanding job. We have the value of family competing with a work ethic value. This is a major struggle that impacts many people often to the point where we are not honoring either value very well. We sacrifice family time and employment effort - neither gets the attention it deserves. When my children were young, these choices were the worst.

These are constant struggles. Good people trying to 'right thing' themselves from one part of the day to the next. There are no clear paths through all this, just an inner sense of what you think is right and which value means more to you. You tend to do the thing you believe to be more important.

It's really not so much of a balance as it is a teeter-totter. One minute you up, the next your down. And man, look out if someone jumps off their end while you're up.