In order to understand what “values” mean in life, it is necessary to understand that for every person living on this planet there are their own particular values. Each person is a separate person who does not depend on anyone and appreciates his own moments. Thus, it is impossible to say exactly, for everyone, what “values” mean for everyone in life. The system of values, which shows its specific state in the world. “Beliefs become one’s thoughts, thoughts become one’s words, words become one’s actions, actions become one’s habits, habits become one’s values, values become one’s destiny.” ― Gandhi
Values are relative, changeable and mobile. They are in constant motion and are often overestimated within a particular culture. The development of culture, its stability associated with the reproduction, distribution, preservation, and change of values. That is the reason different countries, and culture has different core values. They are all simply related to each other but traditions are quite different in each culture, for example, if a simple handshake with a female is a totally normal occurrence in the western world, in some middle eastern countries it would be a gesture of disrespect. That is why it is best to learn about the values and traditions of different cultures before traveling to those places.
One of the main values in the United States is independence. Independence is sometimes called individualism. Americans are very proud to be independent, or able to take care of themselves, and they tend to think that others should be independent as well. When someone reaches a goal, it is usually seen as a result of his or her own hard work. This is different from many other cultures that are more collective. Collective cultures tend to see achievements as a reflection of the entire family or community. So, values are mostly
connected with family, traditions, and patriotism. Many Americans find it extremely important to support their government, military, and country in any way possible, and they do it with pride. But just like in any other culture America has such values as a promise, safety, kindness and help for others. For example, one of the basic examples would be a promise. Just a word promise might give some people the feeling of untrustworthiness due to not keeping it. So it is important in traditions to keep your promises, technically nobody has to legally keep their promise but in the term of morals and values, most of the people indeed try to keep their promise.
At the same time, values are the motivation of human behavior. If for a person among his life values his own health takes priority, then all his behavior will be aimed at observing this value – maintaining a correct lifestyle, constant monitoring of his health, avoiding situations dangerous for the body, etc. If for a person kindness, decency and sincerity are integral elements of spiritual values, then one cannot expect meanness, betrayal, lies from it. The exception is when a person departs from their attitudes under the influence of external factors: thirst for profit, avoiding responsibility, fear, etc. Culture and values are crossing parallels that always somehow cross each other, it is like without values there is really no point of culture, and the same would be if there were values but no culture.
Cultural values are material objects or spiritual principles that have a certain value for a given social subject from the position of satisfying its needs and interests. Thus, the traditions, values, and norms of culture act as a motivation for a person’s cultural behavior, as incentives for achieving goals and protecting certain value acquisitions. With the help of them, standards of cultural assessments are formed in society, priorities of life goals and the choice of methods to achieve them are determined. At the end of the day, people have values just because they think it is something right to them, like kindness, or integrity. Giving positivity will bring back positivity, and that is why it is important for people to stick to their positive life core values.
