What are your V.I.P’s? (V = Values, I = deals, and P = Principles)

Your personal core values define who you are, and a company’s core values ultimately define the company’s character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny” — Tony Hsieh

I am truly honored to be part of a company (albeit as a student, in the professional development program) that promotes and upholds its values to inspire not only their employees but also anyone who visit the Agricultural Research Council. The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa has a clear vision of excelling in Agricultural research and development.

Based on ARC vision and mission statement, powerful values are formulated in a simple acronym that is easy to remember — and to achieve the set out mission with ease and grace. The acronym is TARGET, which stands for the following;

T = Truth

A = Accountability

R = Respect

G = Growth

E = Excellence

T = Trust

These values, including the company’s mission and vision statement, are illuminated in the corridors of most buildings to remind the employees and guests or visitors about what the company stands for. By honoring its values, ARC has established itself and built a good reputation throughout the country, in Africa and beyond.

Majority of students from the field of Agriculture have the dream of working for ARC after graduation. For Agriculture students in South Africa, to work at ARC is like working for Microsoft, Google, Apple or Facebook as a Software Engineering student.

Every successful company practices a culture that is based on a set of founding values, vision statement and governing principles that drive it to fulfill its mission. By the same token, I believe most successful people in various disciplines (especially those in leadership positions) have established themselves by following a set of values in order to achieve their goals.

When talking about values, we refer to the fundamental cornerstone that stands as the bedrock upon which an organization or a person build its principles and showcase the ideas that underpin them. For instance, Nelson Mandela dedicated 67 years of his life committed to, and realizing the dream of a non-racial, non-sexist, peaceful, united and prosperous South Africa.

This purposeful leadership would again be celebrated on the 17th of July 2018 when on Radio 2000 (SABC radio station). While I was eagerly awaiting to hear the former U.S President Barrack Obama, who was visiting South Africa to give a lecture in commemoration of Nelson Mandela’s 100th year of birth in Johannesburg, somebody said, “the best way to honor Nelson Mandela’s legacy is to uphold the Values, the Ideals and the Principles he stood for”.

That got me thinking. I thought about my own values and I realized that being healthy is a core value I live by and committed to since September 2017. Since then, I made a lifelong commitment of leading a healthy lifestyle full of energy, physical strength and vitality by joining a local gym. Joining the gym has enabled me to eat well and sleep well too. Later, digesting the values of ARC — I tried to expand my thinking around HEALTH and see how I can build solid values around the acronym. The resonance of these values with my personal goals is crucial.

Moving forward, I adopted ARC values (TARGET) and combined them with my core value (HEALTH) and I realized that a powerful statement was formed, which is TARGET HEALTH. Ultimately, this discovery assisted me to formulate values that define who I am and resonate with my lifestyle. While ARC TARGET remains Truth, Accountability, Respect, Growth, Excellence and Trust, I stated my value of HEALTH as:

H = Happiness

E = Education

A = Attitude

L = Love

T = Transformation

H = Hope

Wow! What an extraordinary discovery! TARGET HEALTH, Amazing! I thought to myself. This is who I am, or at least who I aspire to be. Someone who is always targeting health. Whenever I hear someone say “Safety first”, the prompt response in my mind would be, invariably “Health second, and Family third”. That has become my mantra — “Safety first, Health second, and Family third”. Discovering my core value and expanding it to such a powerful mantra took me to a state of bliss and fulfillment.

Following through my commitment, I figured that a healthy lifestyle is a lifelong undertaking and I make sure I am at the gym one hour a day, three times a week. The idea has become a principle driving my values and has led to a sense of satisfaction, balance and fulfillment in my life. Scott Jeffrey capped it better by stating that, “when we honor our personal values consistently, we experience fulfillment”.

Furthermore, I decided to formulate my ideals as a bunch of solid principles and connect each of them to my personal values based on epigrams that I lead my life by, listed as follows:

Let’s start with TARGET:

T = Truth: “The truth will set you free” — Jesus Christ

A = Accountability: “Accountability breeds response-ability” — Stephen R. Covey

R = Respect: “Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it” — R.G Risch

G = Growth: “If you are not growing, you are dying” — Tony Robbins

E = Excellence: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” — Aristotle

T = Transformation: “Transformation is often more about unlearning, then learning” — Richard Rohr.

And moving on to HEALTH –

H = Happiness: Happiness cannot be pursued, it must ensue” — Victor Frankl

E = Education: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” — Nelson Mandela:

A = Attitude: “Attitude, not Aptitude, determines your Altitude” — Zig Ziglar

L = Love: “Love is not what you say, love is what you do” — Unknown

T = Trust: “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” Unknown

H = Hope: “Hope is an anchor for the soul, holding it firm and secure” — Hebrew 4:19

Invariably, I remind myself about my mantra — “Safety first, Health second, and Family third”. That does not mean my family comes third in my top three priorities or values. It comes first, I choose my family over everything. However, I cannot protect my family without protecting myself first. I cannot care for my family, without taking care of myself first. I cannot, and certainly so, provide them with what I do not have.

For principles, I have noticed, that people change with time and the current advancements in many fields or disciplines (especially in technology), has made change more imperative in recent times. As we learn new things daily, we also need to unlearn old things that do not serve us well. Often times our beliefs or abstract principles are projected to us mostly by culture systems as we grow older.

To formulate solid principles to live by, it is imperative to scrutinize the values and concepts or beliefs upon which culture in one’s environment was formed. Different cultural norms followed in various environments influences peoples’ personalities differently. The next important step is to be open-minded and embrace diversity as you get exposed to different cultures.

I will advice, look back into your upbringing and how your society has shaped your identity to debunk all the values, concepts or beliefs that do not elevate you or your purpose and adopt those that resonate with yourself and your ideal future. That is how you arrive at your true character, by formulating solid principles as you learn, unlearn and relearn to become a transformed individual.

For instance. I believe, with conviction in my heart, that if I follow my own solid principles, that I have investigated, studies and tested through experience — I can achieve anything that I set my mind into. And I mean ANYTHING.

You can do the same. Discover your own values if you haven’t, tie them with your ideals that govern your life, and formulate solid (but not rigid) principles and experience the greater thrill of becoming a VIP (Very Important Person) in your own world and at your own terms.

Finally, my core principles include Self-discipline and Grit. I wrote more about these two principles in my first article on medium.com — Titled Forget Success: Pursue Meaningful, Balanced, and Healthy Lifestyle.

I also publish these articles in my personal blog — Life Is an Odyssey. You can access it on this link — https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6852270173435020059#allposts

Please feel free to engage me on this post and most importantly, I would also love to know. What are your V.I.P’s?