Values Compass
From many values, choose the five that truly move you — not the ones you are supposed to hold.
Values are many and all are beautiful, which makes choosing hard — and there lies the exercise’s worth. Forcing yourself to just five surfaces the difference between the value that truly moves you and the one you think you’re “supposed” to hold. Notice the faint ache as you set aside a value you love; that ache itself is evidence of what matters to you. The chosen five are not a worthiness badge but a compass for your decisions when people and mood pull at you. Worth your reflection: do you live your day aligned with these five, or has a gap grown between what you hold sacred and what you do? That gap, not the value itself, is where the work is.
Tool card
When you feel you are living by others’ expectations, or before a decision that needs an inner compass.
7–10 minutes
Naming your core values gives you a stable yardstick for decisions and stances, instead of passing mood.
Values Card Sort (Schwartz / ACT)
Does not judge whether your values are “right” or rank people by them; it mirrors what matters to you, not a worthiness test.
Not a substitute for therapy; for acute distress consult a professional.
Source: Values Card Sort (Schwartz / ACT) · A developmental reflective framework, not clinical assessment.
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