Tiger Woods' epiphany: core values + family>immediate thrills (& less costly too)

While living in Europe my colleague and I received a call late one night. The phone call was from an American woman living in Finland who had partied very hard with her husband. When they called both were suffering serious physical repercussions from alcohol and perhaps some drugs. When we arrived we began to ask some questions in order to ascertain how we could help them.

What we learned is that the spouses loved each other but had entirely lived for the present. They chose to indulge their habits at the peril of losing sight of the values they had embraced years before.

The feeling I had that night was dark, heaviness. The spouses were destroying each other and themselves. Like Tiger Woods they had been taught better by parents, but had chosen to please themselves.

Tiger Woods put it this way when describing his personal pleasure seeking:  "... I had gotten away from my core values ... I quit doing all the things that my mom and dad had taught me..."

Core values and family life provide great joy now and in the future. Partying provides an immediate shallow thrill followed by long-term emptiness.

A sure way to lose a lot of money (Tiger lost about 22 million) and to destroy families is to forget the future and focus on selfish pleasurable tendencies.

Treasuring core values and our families is not only fulfilling, but frugal too.

 

(Photo courtesy Keith Allison)