Week #8

In order to work closely with one another in a group, members of the group need to discuss goals and methods on how to reach the goals with one another.  Inevitably, when having these discussions, group members will notice the personal values of one another.  At times, this can be a positive thing.  For example, if a sister values education and is showing how much she does value it by studying at the library, perhaps other sisters will be motivated to take on this value as her own and thereby join her sister at the library.  Sometimes, having individual values rub off on the group can have negative consequences, though.  For example, if a fraternity member joined Greek Life for the wrong reasons and thereby values only the social aspect of Greek Life, this attitude might draw others in as well.  Other fraternity members may start putting more emphasis on the social aspect and less on pillars he/she used to value, such as academics.  I think that being a person of congruence doesn't mean that we are congruent with our values every second of every day.  There will be times where we do make mistakes and perhaps we are less motivated to do work for our philanthropies or put hours in at the library.  I think that this is okay, as long as we don't lose sight of the bigger picture.  It's okay to trip up once in a while, but when we look closely and examine whether a person is a person of congruence or not, I think it's best to not focus on little mistakes, but look at the person as a whole.  We're all humans and will thereby make mistakes so dwelling on solely the times where we were not living congruently might not be the smartest thing to do.  To live a life of congruence, I think that the best thing is to look at our behavior.  If it parallels what we say we believe in, then we are on the right track.  If there are some murky areas, then that gives us an opportunity to ask ourselves why we weren't being congruent at that time and what we can do in the future to make sure that we are living congruently --maybe our values changed or maybe we made a mistake that we can learn from.