There was a point in my life where I had a religious beliefs to an extent. As I grew up i doubted them and eventually dumped them all in trash where I believe they all belonged. This all happened very gradually in a course of 6 or so years. But at its very beginning some one I don't remember told me this:
There is not a fucking thing in your life that stays the same, everything changes, so there are some values that you need to keep to stay in the right track.
Dicuss.
DICUSS
if everything in your life changes surely that means even values change?
Values? While I don't know about a 'right track', of course you have to keep some. And as >>3 said, they too might change.
And no, they do not have to be religious, or political, or whatever. The best (yet hard) is to find which ones you want to keep. What you'd stand for. Basically that's what your "values" are, and they have an important part in defining your personnality. Know them and you'll know yourself better.
Some are more obvious than others, and I think that whole "right track" thing is to be seen in a more global context. Stupid example amongst others: family. Would you fight for your family, would you give the best of yourself for your family? Then that's a something you value, and that is globally seen as "the right track", culturally and historically-wise.
But as there are values that would be the "right track" for ones and the wrong for the others, that is rather pointless. And I don't even speak of the means you may want to use to defend these values (by the way, these means would also depend on other values).
All I can say is that your values surely could help you as the whole "everything changes around you" thing is happening. That's it.
''Values'' are not really pertinent I, anonymous, think. They're pre-made categories you will want to put things in, undoubtly forcing them. Trying each time to understand the situation and how things work is way more effective, and pleasing.
The point is, you always end up with the same things, cause the human mind is, well, human. There are things we share. That created the notion of "value", like some sort of thing which would exist per se in the universe. That's not the case, and the way ''values'' are expressed or explained generally is really not accurate, best (or worst) example being ''good'' and ''evil''. No, ''good'' and ''evil'' don't exist, and you can't put every action and thing in either one or the other.
And as >4 said, one important thing is to know what you base yourself on when you think this or that, cause these are your postulates, what you consider true without consideration. These are, in a way, your ''values''. To find them, just keep asking yourself why you think this or that, and you'll reach them. It's mathematical. And beware of the self-satisfying answers, like "because I like to help people" or so. I tend not to trust them. I may be pessimistic. Oh well.