Values clarification
Name the directions you want your life to move in, distinct from goals you can check off.
Why it works
Values are chosen life directions, not destinations — they give behavior a "why" that survives discomfort. Clarifying them works because a clear value reframes hard action as meaningful rather than merely unpleasant, providing intrinsic motivation that outlasts the fleeting drive of feeling good.
How to do it
- Pick a life domain (relationships, work, health) and ask who you want to be in it.
- Distinguish the value (a direction, like "be caring") from a goal (a finish line).
- Check that it is yours, not an inherited "should."
- Translate it into how you would act today if you lived by it.
Evidence
Values work is a defining ACT process and overlaps with self-determination research showing intrinsic, autonomous motivation sustains behavior better than external pressure. (observational)
Values clarification is hard to isolate experimentally; its support comes largely from whole-ACT trials and related motivation research.
Common mistake
Confusing values with goals ("get married") instead of directions ("be a loving partner"). Goals can be lost or completed; values keep pointing the way regardless.
Practice this with IX Coach
7 days free, then $40/month (~$1.30/day).
More practices for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
- Cognitive defusion
See thoughts as passing mental events, not literal truths or commands you must obey.
- Acceptance (willingness)
Make room for unwanted feelings instead of struggling against them, so they stop running the show.
- Committed action
Take concrete steps toward your values, again and again, even when discomfort shows up.
- Contact with the present moment
Bring flexible attention to here and now, instead of being lost in past or future.
- Self-as-context (the observing self)
Notice the steady "you" that observes thoughts and feelings without being defined by them.