Taproot Core Values Exercise: 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 Taproot Core Values Exercise, 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. 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
5. 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.
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. 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
8. Act as if sages were watching — the practice of the philosophical community
   Before any action, ask: would a person I genuinely respect — who embodies the values I aspire to — approve of this?
   Pierre Hadot’s Spiritual Exercises
9. 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
10. Stick to Values: act consistently with what actually matters to you
    Before compromising a position, check whether the compromise conflicts with a core value — and hold if it does.
    FAST: DBT’s Skill for Maintaining Self-Respect in Relationships

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→
• Working on my values feels like an endless aspiration with no scoreboard→
• If you ask me what I value I’ll say family, health, honesty, growth→

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