Value of Life

Published May 19th, 2008

Over the last couple of months I’ve really sat down and analyzed my statistics carefully to try to get to know my readers better, where they come from and what it is they’re looking for when they come here (not many people leave comments yet). This three word phrase “Value of Life” is the most common search term for this website. Now I dug deeper, and saw that approximately 50% of the people who searched this were from different countries, the other 50% are from the U.S. and Canada. What is it they are looking for? Is this the result of a translation? Are they searching for a monetary answer, are they grieving, thinking of taking their own life, or are they celebrating life? About 50% of these people stay and look around, and some subscribe, still others move on as they may have been looking for something else altogether. What does it all mean? In today’s post I’ll tell you what this search term means to me, and the process I went through in picking the name and subject matter for this site. At the end of this post, I’ll give you a chance to leave your interpretation.

In the world of blogging and websites there are certain “niches” that one can fall into, for example, personal finance, personal growth, food etc. As with many things in my life, I don’t fall into just one of those niches, the theme of this site is really just about ways of adding value to many aspects of your life. The closest niche I may fall into is the “lifestyle” category, but that’s debatable.

In doing my initial research, about starting up, marketing, and growing a website, it seems that I’ve chosen a “difficult” path. Many blogging experts out there warn against writing a blog about many subjects because it’s hard to attract and maintain readers, or get targeted advertising. I can see that, but I don’t necessarily agree. See, while this traditionally applies to business, I subscribe to the 80/20 rule– that you get 80 percent of your business from 20% of your clients. In terms of the blog and website, what it says about me, is that I don’t care as much about the high volume of readers, I care about the quality, and speaking to people that have a lot in common with me and see that value can be about money, your personal values, and getting the most out of every single day you have here on earth. This website isn’t about the niche, it’s about the best quality of content I can produce, and about the people I write it for–the experts can respectfully say whatever they like.

Now we get personal…

Money

There will always be more people that have more money than you, and no matter how bad things are, there are also people who have far less than you do. There are billions of people in the world, and many of them are truly happy with just a fraction of what we have in North America. Don’t get me wrong, we all need money, it is our basic currency for meeting many of our needs and almost all of our wants–but it really isn’t the most important thing to me. The way I look at it, we have a certain amount of money, and it’s what we do with it that’s most important.

Having been university students for many years, we just learned to live on less money, and we had some wonderful times when we literally had very little. I instead focus on getting the most possible out of the money that I do have, and finding balance within my personal life and family. I continue to believe that building true and consistent wealth happens over time, and that patience, knowledge, and focusing on your goals are the true keys to success.

Values

No matter what your socio-economic background, I believe that our values shape who we are, and how we live our lives. Once we get to a certain age, we are capable of self-reflection, and although it may be difficult, we all have the strength within us to make change happen. If some of your adult values are different than those you grew up with, then that will at some point cause conflict with those in your family. I believe that part of being an adult means making tough decisions about what’s right for you, and then having the courage to stick with them.

I think it’s important to remember that your values affect the course of the rest of your life, and those of your dependents. What baggage you don’t deal with, you pass on to your children. A couple of years ago, I took the time to sit down with my husband and we put our values in to writing. We made a conscious decision to change a few things. It’s taken some hard work, but we’ve made a lot of progress. As this journey of life continues, I’m sure that many more things will change, and we will have to adapt, but most importantly, we have made a decision to be conscious, live in the present, and follow our values–even if it means taking the harder road sometimes.

Life

Having recently lost a very important member of my family, with whom I grew up, and having to deal with an ailing parent, there’s been some serious time for self-reflection. I think that if we look past the day to day grind, and all of the superficial things, we would understand that life is a very finite gift. Each day with the ones you love really could be your last. Anyone who has unfortunately experienced a sudden loss, can likely identify with this.

I choose to live my life. Even if I am tired, or feeling sad, I tell and show everyone around me how much they mean to me. When I make a mistake, I apologize and try to make it right. To me, value means getting the most out of every single day. A very wise acquaintance recently wrote me a letter of condolence; he was talking about life and death, and that in the end it’s not that we die, but how we live that really counts. I couldn’t agree more.

So, to everyone that wanders here, and everyone who’s already a reader, hope this post has given you some insight into why I write, and why the site is here. I genuinely hope this post has helped you to get to know me better. Now I’d like to get to know you…how does the word Value apply to your life? Don’t be shy, leave a comment! If you are shy though, feel free to send me your thoughts by confidential email instead valueforyourlife@gmail.com Sincerely, Amanda

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