Coaching practices for Act Values

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

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
• I know what matters to me in the abstract, but it stays a nice idea
• Working on my values feels like an endless aspiration with no scoreboard
• I keep telling myself I’m basically living in line with what I care about, but if I’m brutally honest about my actual behavior the last couple of weeks, I suspect I’m way further from the center than I let myself admit
• I pour everything into one part of my life

Practices that may help

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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
4. Committed action: making specific, values-linked behavioral commitments
   Translate a value into a specific, observable action you commit to this week.
   Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical
5. 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.
6. 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
7. Rate your current position in each domain
   Mark on each domain’s bullseye how closely your recent behavior has matched the value — honestly.
   Values Bullseye, Made Practical
8. 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
9. The values–behavior gap check
   Audit the last week: which of your top values did your actual decisions honor?
   Values Card Sort
10. 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.

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