Eight Values of Free Expression

 

Individual Self-Fulfillment is the act of expressing personal thoughts, beliefs, and ideas which is essential for human growth.

Why Individual Self-Fulfillment is the Most Important

I believe Individual Self-Fulfillment is the most important value out of the total eight values. Individual Self-Fulfillment is about working hard to achieve your own goals and desires. This is important because from self-fulfillment people gain a sense of self-actualization and self-realization. You learn a deeper understanding of yourself and what you value as a person. Freedom of speech is also an aspect of Individual Self-Fulfillment. I believe, freedom of Speech is extremely important in America and helps everyone gain a sense of self to state their opinions and what they believe in. 

The action of Freedom of Speech promotes individual self-fulfillment by providing people the right to discover, share, express, and develop their own identity and potential. Speaking in public, writing, or creating art allows people share their inner thoughts and emotions revealing to themselves and others who they are. 

How It Resonates With Me

The value of Individual Self-Fulfillment resonates with me the most because whenever I share my thoughts or opinions in public I feel a sense of self and I learn more about myself and why I have opinions on certain things. I feel it is more personal towards me because so many of the other values, like duty, loyalty, or achievement, only really work when a person already has a sense of who they are. You can't be loyal to something meaningful if you don't know what matters to you. You can't serve a purpose you haven't examined. For me, gaining individual self-fulfillment has helped me to figure out what I believe in and has made me confident to state out loud my opinions and beliefs when it it necessary. From gaining self-fulfillment it helped me make my own choices and not just follow along what everyone else is doing. I started to realize that your own self comes before anyone else's expectations on yourself.

Self-fulfillment is the foundation that every other value gets built on.

Where I See It Today

The value of individual self-fulfillment is shown everywhere in the world in many different situations. 

Individual Self-Fulfillment is shown throughout work and school. For example, people are showing self-fulfillment by leaving high paying jobs because it's not making them happy or it's just too stressful. They quit because they want a happy-work life balance. We even see a lot of self-fulfillment on social media platforms. You can see people using it to build lives around what genuinely interests them like, art, niche hobbies, or even music. 

Even in education, there's been a slow shift toward encouraging students to explore rather than just perform. Colleges push for students to actually find what they love and by doing that colleges remind students that it's okay to change your majors. This is a pure example of Individual Self-Fulfillment being built throughout the world.

Overall, Self-fulfillment isn't about ignoring the world around you. It's about making sure the life you build actually belongs to you and that your happy with who you are.  Out of all eight values, this is the one that makes the others possible. It's really hard to live a good life without having self-fulfillment. You can't really live out purpose, courage, or connection if you haven't first figured out who you are and what you actually want.