Coaching practices for Define Your Values

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

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

  • I can’t tell which of my values are truly mine and which I just absorbed from my parents or my culture
  • I want to pin down the few things I most want to have stood for when I look back at my whole life
  • I say I value family, or health, or creativity
  • I pour everything into one part of my life
  • If someone asked me what I actually care about, I’m not sure I could answer honestly

Practices that may help

  1. Use the eulogy / future-self lens
    Imagine how you’d want to be remembered to reveal the values you’d defend most.
    Values Clarification, Made Practical
  2. Write a values declaration as the core of your legacy letter
    Name the two to four values you most want to have lived by — then write why they matter to you.
    The Legacy Letter: Writing What You Want to Leave Behind
  3. 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.
  4. Values clarification through lived evidence
    Infer your actual values from your past behaviour, not from what you wish you valued.
    Svadhyaya: Self-Study as a Daily Practice
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. Rank your top values
    Force a strict order among your finalists so conflicts resolve in advance.
    Values Clarification, Made Practical
  8. Clarify values and choose them actively
    Name what genuinely matters to you — not what should matter — and make it a live choice today.
    Psychological Flexibility, 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. Excavate your actual values from your history
    Use past choices and sacrifices — not aspirations — to find what you actually value.
    Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy

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