Posted by Mike O on: 10.30.2008 /
I was listening to a message this week that touched on the global financial crisis, and how hard times like this global recession can reveal three different levels of conviction.
Public Convictions - These are the things you pretend you believe - or you wished you believed - or maybe you really do believe, at least on the surface - but really they’re little more than the right thing to believe. For example, “Real wealth is measured, not by the amount of money in your wallet, but the the number of friends in your heart.” I think we would all agree. But in reality, now that the financial market is taking a turn for the worse, it’s not keeping our friends that captures our attention, it’s our money.
Private Convictions - These are the things you really believe in your heart, that serve as a guide for how you live your life. For example, “I would never prioritize my job over my family.” All other things being equal, this really is a conviction you would try to hold to. But again, now that the market has soured, would you really never prioritize your job over your family?
Core Convictions - These are the convictions you find out you hold that you didn’t know you held until life took an unexpected turn. When you simply have to do what you have to do to survive, your core convictions surface and override your private convictions out of necessity. For example, “I know I said I would never prioritize my job over my family, but this is different.”
With that said, I think it’s interesting to see these in action around you. The political ads that we’re being bombarded with here in the U.S. show us the public convictions of each candidate. From that, we try to pick the candidate who holds similar private convictions as ours. And their track record shows what their core convictions really are.
On Tuesday, we’ll be electing a new president of the United States. We hear their public convictions. Will their private and core convictions line up? Time will tell.
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
1This is interesting - thanks Mike.
There’s nothing like a crisis to show you what your real priorities are, no matter what you think they are or what you tell yourself they are.
But I also think it’s ok to revisit our ideas about our priorities and change them if we realize they are unrealistic/unworkable, in practice.
As we experience life and learn and grow I think it’s quite possible that our ideas and priorities will change over time.
And one thing I’ve noticed about the process of getting older is that for many people it involves revisiting convictions and deciding which are really ‘mine’ and which are ones I was told to hold by others.
My change in faith involved a great deal of looking at what I actually believed compared with what I had been told I was supposed to believe. And it took a some time to rediscover what I actually believed, under the layers of what I’d been told to believe. It was worth it though.
Comment by: Mike O
2I agree.
Comment by: Jason
3I like to think that my public and private convictions are the same and that my core convictions are also pretty close. I’m just not sure if people perceive the way I implement my values as being the same as the way I think of them. I try not to by hypocritical. There is also no real way of telling how my core convictions hold up without putting them to the test.
I assume that this is the same for everyone. Even professional politicians who are skilled at displaying a public persona must still be pretty close to that in order to carry it out consistently or at least they believe that their public and private convictions are the same. They can only let down the people who vote for them when tested and found wanting.
Like Helen has already pointed out that doesn’t mean that they won’t change over time. We can only hope that we and they change for the better.
Comment by: Three Kinds of Convictions | All Reason
4 11/11/08 5:10 PM | Comment Link |[...] ..Real Full Article [...]