Introduction
I just finished the book “Do The Right Thing” by Mike Huckabee and thought it might be interesting to write a summary of key points that I had taken from this book and how they can improve your life and overall effectiveness. In addition, this seemed to be the appropriate time to address the importance of values as I was planning to do this anyway. As I often find in my life I sometimes receive a subtle nudge to write about a given topic – in this instance even though the topic was on my list for over a month the timing never felt right. This evening I had just finished “Do The Right Thing” and I had also finished reading a great article called “More On Planning” from Steve Pavlina which touches upon values, this is the subtle nudge I needed to get going on this topic. Sometimes it is funny how things just sort of come together in life.

A Word Of Caution
Before proceeding I wanted to mention a few things. First, I find the topic of values to be a somewhat “sticky” subject as people are diverse as individuals, so often are their values. Values are often very different from individual to individual and are deep seated in their subconscious and therefore evoke strong, and sometimes irrational emotion. I wanted to start off by saying that the purpose of this article is not to prescribe  a particular set of values on an individual – that is outside the scope of this article. Values are obtained from spiritual, religious, relationships, and/or academic education, not my place to determine where you get your values, I am just hoping to convey the importance of outlining your values and aligning your personal and business endeavors to these values.

Second, although a main source of this article and the follow-up values article is a political book it is by no means an endorsement of a political party or candidate. As I have pledged in the past I strive to stay politically and religiously neutral in this forum as not to divide our readers insomuch as possible. This is at times difficult as values are a powerful force for the reasons stated in the preceding paragraph, however the professional in me will always strive to provide our readers with a balanced view – the overarching concepts conveyed here are most important and not the specifics of carrying out such concepts – that is up to you the reader to decide. If you consider my first two sources that I reference in this article, Mike Huckabee and Steve Pavlina, my guess is that you would agree that you will not find two more diverse individuals who are likely on opposite ends of the spectrum – however each emphasizes the importance of values and are successful in their own right – my hope is that you, the readers, see this as a balanced approach.

So why use a politico book such as “Do The Right Thing” as the basis for two articles if I am attempting to stay politically neutral? First, when I started reading the book I did not realize it was more of a documentation of Mike Huckabee’s campaign than a biography, I was hoping for more of the latter than the former. This is not to say that I was misled, my two drivers for reading this book was first it was on the New York Times Best Sellers List and second I was curious about the man himself – given his emergence on the scene out of nowhere and the rapid spreading of his message akin to a strong viral marketing campaign.