Check action against stated values — the alignment review

Once a week, compare your stated values to your actual choices and name the gap honestly.

Why it works

Most people have a gap between espoused values and enacted values — what they say matters and what their behavior reveals matters. The alignment review closes neither gap by magic but makes it visible, which is the necessary first step. Cognitive dissonance between stated and acted values is a motivational force, but only if the discrepancy is acknowledged rather than explained away.

How to do it

1. Once a week, write three values you say you hold most central.
2. Review the past week’s behavior: give each value a letter grade based on what your actions actually showed.
3. For any value graded C or below, identify the single moment this week that most clearly showed the gap.
4. Ask: was this a momentary failure or a systematic pattern? Name which.

Evidence

Values clarification exercises in ACT and narrative therapy improve goal coherence and psychological flexibility; research on the value-action gap (Ariely, behavioral economics) shows that making the gap visible is the first condition of closing it. (clinical)

Clinical support is for values clarification generally; the specific letter-grading alignment review format is a practical design, not a tested protocol.

Common mistake

Choosing abstract values that are too diffuse to evaluate ("I value love") rather than actionable ones ("I value honest communication with the people I care about").