Personal Values Discovery and Ranking

Values are chosen directions for living, and they are different from goals in a way that matters clinically. A goal can be completed and checked off: get the degree, run the race, have the conversation. A value is never finished: being a curious learner, being physically capable, being honest with the people close to you. In acceptance and commitment therapy, values are the compass and goals are the towns along the road. Clients who confuse the two tend to reach a goal and feel flat, because the value that made the goal matter was never named. This ranking grid names it.

The reason to rank rather than list is that values conflict in ordinary weeks. Family and career both matter; on a given Tuesday one of them gets the evening. A ranked list turns those collisions from guilt into a decision that was made on purpose. In the ACT model this is the foundation of committed action: knowing what matters most makes it possible to move toward it even when moving is uncomfortable (Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson, 2012). Laboratory studies of ACT components found values work among the elements with measurable effects on its own (Levin et al., 2012), which is why it is often the first process introduced in treatment.

Three notes for using the grid well. Write values as directions, in a few words each, and avoid writing goals in the value column; 'being a present parent' is a value, 'take the kids camping' belongs in the third column as the action. Rank by importance, not by how well you currently live the value; the gap between the two is the clinical material, and it is where the third column does its work. And expect the ranking to change; a grid completed at intake and again at month three usually differs, and the difference is worth a session.

This is the quick, do-it-now version. To explore the concepts first, use Clarifying What Matters Most, which walks through values by life domain, or Exploring Your Personal Values Across Life Domains. To see where each value came from, Circles of Influence on Personal Values separates what is yours from what was handed to you. Once the top value is clear, Values-Based Goals turns it into concrete committed action, and the Choice Point gives a way to catch the moment a daily decision moves toward or away from it.