How To Figure Out Your Values

Maybe you value being outside, spending time in nature, or taking care of your health and wellness.

We all have values even if we don’t realize it. Many of us have values that aren’t what they think they are, but we don’t know that until we spend a little bit of time reflecting on them. So I propose a Values Sort.

A Values Sort is an activity that helps you identify your values and then place them higher or lower according to their importance to you. That’s the tough part. Let’s say you know that you love adventure but you also really value honesty. Now put them next to each other: Adventure and Honesty. Which one comes out on top? Which one is more important? It might take some time to answer that question, and that’s good! You shouldn’t rush it. And it’s okay if you change your answers later. People change, we all change, and that’s why doing a values sort periodically can help us notice those changes instead of adhering to our previous notions of how we think we are.

You might be asking, “okay, but why are my values so important to know?” Because your values guide you. They help you make decisions. And not just small decisions like what are you going to eat for dinner (even if they do help with that too), but big decisions, like, ‘what career do I want’, ‘do I want kids’, ‘where should I live’, or even, ‘what shall I do with my life’. That’s right, it’s such a big question that we return to ye Olde English and hit it with the ‘shall’. It’s scary, right? But would you rather spend some time with that question, armed with the guidance of your values, or would you rather ignore it and spend the rest of your life watching reality tv? It’s up to you. Maybe mindless entertainment is your highest value!

Here’s a few ways to do a values sort:

• Online. There’s plenty of options, just do a bit of searching. Here’s one, two, and three that I found in a quick search.

• Physical cards. Maybe you don’t want to do an online values sort, maybe you want to physically interact with the cards on your coffee table or even the ground. That’s great! You can print out cards from a place like this, or you can make your own. You could print them out and then add your own values if you feel a certain value hasn’t been represented. There’s no wrong way to do this.

• Values meditation. This isn’t quite a values sort but it is a really good way of spending time in conversation with yourself about your values. Healthy Minds (my favorite meditation app) has several values specific meditations on their app or you could do some quick searching via YouTube or spotify. Maybe just sit alone with your thoughts and spend a bit of time focusing on your values. See what you come up with. Again, no wrong way to do it.