Growth Zone
Most people make decisions by instinct, and instinct is often right. But when you know your core values, you stop wondering why certain decisions feel right and others feel wrong even when they look good on paper. Your values are the operating system running in the background of every choice you make.
Identifying them doesn't constrain you. It gives you a language for yourself and a compass that works even when things get complicated.
How people use their core values
When facing a hard decision, they ask: Which option honours what I actually care about?
When something feels off, they ask: Which of my values is being compromised here?
When setting goals, they filter through: Does this align with who I'm trying to be, not just what I'm trying to achieve?
This exercise takes about 10 to 15 minutes. There's no right answer, only honest ones.
Step 1 of 2
Work through this list and pick the ten values that resonate most, the words that feel like you. Try to move relatively quickly. Your instincts here are more useful than your analysis.
Once you've selected ten, a button will appear to continue. You can still toggle selections on and off, but you can't hold more than ten at once.
Step 2 of 2
These are the ten values that resonated most. Now comes the harder work.
Look at this list and ask yourself: if you had to live by only two or three of these, the ones that sit underneath everything else, the ones you'd defend even at personal cost, which would they be?
Select 2 values to continue. You may choose a third, but not a fourth.
Your Core Values
Naming a value is just the first step. What matters is how you make it real, in the way you work, the relationships you invest in, and the decisions you make when things are hard.
Questions to sit with
On identity
When are you most fully yourself?
Think of a moment, recent or not, when you felt completely aligned. What were you doing? Who were you with? What does that tell you about which of your core values was being honoured?
On friction
Where does the resistance keep showing up?
Recurring frustration is often a values signal. Think about what reliably drains you, bothers you, or makes you dig in. Is there a value underneath that friction, something you keep needing that keeps going unmet?
On courage
What would you do differently if you lived these more fully?
Not as self-criticism, but as honest curiosity. Where are the gaps between what you say matters and how you actually spend your time, energy, or attention?
On decisions
What choice have you been putting off that these values might help clarify?
Bring a specific situation to mind. Run it through each of your core values. Does one path honour them more than the other? Does the answer surprise you?
On legacy
How would the people who know you best describe what you stand for?
And how close is that to what you want the answer to be?
Carrying this forward
You don't need to frame this on a wall. Try writing your core values somewhere you'll see them during ordinary moments: the top of a journal page, a note in your phone, the corner of a whiteboard. The goal isn't to memorise them. It's to keep them close enough that they show up in real time.
When a decision feels hard, pause and ask: What would someone who genuinely holds [your value] do here? You often already know.
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