Between Belief and Values

Beliefs are statements of conviction that can inform values.

Values involve continuous behavior. There is no end state. They are guiding forces or ways of being that resonate with who you want to be in the world (not what other people think of you or what you want other people to think of you.)

Where beliefs can be adopted, values must be enacted. A belief can be stated once and filed away; a value demands iteration. It shapes the micro-decisions: what you say yes to, what you walk away from, what you do when no one’s watching and when everyone is. This distinction matters in an era saturated with signals. We’re inundated with expressions of belief—tweets, statements, posts—but they’re increasingly cheap, frictionless, performative.

A belief can collapse under pressure; a value endures because it’s been lived in, stress-tested, and often reshaped by contradiction. Most of us claim beliefs. But the work of values is the work of integrity: the integration of thought, feeling, and action over time.

So the question becomes: which values are choosing you? And are you paying attention enough to notice?