How being clear with your values will prevent you from being easily influenced
A friend was deeply in love with a woman, whom he thought he knew. They shared a love of travel, nature, and a simple life. They circumnavigated the world, and their love grew even stronger.
Ten years passed. When they settled in his hometown, her new friends convinced her that the lifestyle she shared with my friend was inadequate.
She changed, no longer valuing the simple life and traveling lifestyle. She opted instead for the superficial and the material; she became critical of my friend. Their love fell apart.
“She was easily influenced,” my friend explained.
I thought of the Steven Covey’s quote:
“People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.”
Our core is our values.
If we don’t know what those values are, we will be prone to being manipulated. Our decisions will be made in a fog; and when life changes—which it inevitably will—outside opinions could easily control us.