People will challenge you to act in all kinds of ways. Sometimes they'll entice you to do as they do and other times they'll challenge the way you act and the choices you make. The bottom line related to this is that you'll do well if you act according to your values, and if that doesn't feel right then you may need to revisit your values.
Language
What do you value about language? When you speak with others what kind of language encourages you to do your best, get along, and connect? And what kind of language creates conflict, worry, frustration, and dismay. How we use language matters a lot, and this is an area of life many of us are constantly revisiting and improving.
Listening
How we listen is a critical part of who we are and what we value. If we value others, we will actively listen to their stories with a focus on getting to know them, meeting their needs, and sharing in their life's endeavors. When a person's words don't make sense to us, we have the chance to ask clarifying questions. Through listening we show respect which is a key ingredient to positive, productive relationships.
Shared Endeavor
Making time to share what we love and value with others is another way we exhibit our values. When we gather friends to celebrate, do service work, or engage in a similar pastime, we find ourselves in places where many people share our values--these events that originate with shared values also serve to strengthen those values we share in meaningful ways.
Honesty
Speaking with honesty allows us to clearly express our values to others. At times, some may not like what we have to say. This could be because we have very different values. Events like this make us think about our values--sometimes we may revise our values and other times we may find that the friendship is not worth saving since our values are so different.
What you do is who you are. At every step, you can ask yourself if this is the person you want to be and if the actions you are engaging in are working to build that person up with strength or if the actions are actually challenging your values in ways that weaken you.
It is important to be clear about your values and at the same time willing to revisit and revise those values if there's a good reason to do that. In general, we typically live better when we surround ourselves with people who share our values and the commitment we have to those values. Onward.