Act Core Values: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Act Core Values, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Values clarification: what matters most to you?
   Identify 3–5 core values — not what you should value, but what actually matters when life is stripped back.
   Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical
2. Make core values operational, not decorative
   Use core values in hiring, recognition, and decision-making — not just on the website.
   The Rockefeller Habits: Scaling Up with Rhythm and Focus
3. Map your values across the four life domains
   Write one core value statement for each domain — work, relationships, personal growth, leisure — before touching the bullseye.
   Values Bullseye, Made Practical
4. Values Clarification, Made Practical
   Values clarification is the work of naming what matters most to you, sorting the genuine priorities from the inherited ones, and using them to guide real choices. The methods — card sorts, ranking, value-consistent action — draw heavily on values work in acceptance-and-commitment therapy (ACT), which has clinical support; living in line with your values correlates with wellbeing in observational research.
5. Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical
   Values-based action in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) means choosing behaviors that are consistent with what matters most to you — your values — rather than behaviors driven by avoidance of pain or approval-seeking. ACT distinguishes values (directions, ongoing) from goals (destinations, finishable); the emphasis is on the quality of action in the present rather than outcome attainment. ACT has robust meta-analytic support; values-based action is identified as a core mechanism.
6. Values Bullseye, Made Practical
   The values bullseye, developed by Tobias Lundgren within the ACT framework, is a visual exercise in which you rate how close your current behavior is to the bullseye in four life domains — work, relationships, personal growth, and leisure. It converts abstract values into a concrete gap-analysis, making it easier to choose one committed action that moves you toward the center. The exercise is part of the established ACT toolkit; direct evidence for the instrument is limited but the underlying ACT framework has substantial support.
7. Compassionate reframing of the core belief’s origin
   Understand how the core belief made sense when it formed, as a first step to loosening its grip.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
8. Review the bullseye weekly to track real movement
   Re-mark each domain every week and compare — small outward or inward shifts are your feedback loop.
   Values Bullseye, Made Practical
9. The forced-rank sort
   Write your top 20 candidate values on cards, then sort them ruthlessly until you have a ranked top five.
   Values Card Sort
10. Committed Action, Made Practical
    Committed action — a core ACT process developed by Steven Hayes — means taking concrete, repeated steps toward what you value even while discomfort is present, rather than waiting for the feeling of readiness. It is the behavioral spine of ACT, which has substantial randomized-trial support across anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and other conditions.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• If someone asked me what I actually care about, I’m not sure I could answer honestly→
• We’ve got nice-sounding values up on the wall and the website, but they do nothing in the room when a real hiring or judgment call is on the table→
• I pour everything into one part of my life→
• I can see where this belief about myself came from→
• Working on my values feels like an endless aspiration with no scoreboard→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.