Valued living audit: how much are you actually living your values?

Rate both how important each value is and how consistently you have been living it — the gap is where to focus.

Why it works

A discrepancy between stated values and lived behavior is a form of psychological inconsistency that generates low-level distress without a clear target. The valued living audit makes the gap explicit and measurable, which (a) motivates action because the cost of inaction is visible and (b) narrows the focus to high-importance, low-consistency values rather than trying to improve everything at once.

How to do it

1. List your 5–8 most important life domains (work, relationships, health, creativity, etc.).
2. For each, rate: "How important is this to me?" (1–10) and "How consistently am I living this?" (1–10).
3. Compute the gap: importance minus consistency. Higher gaps = highest priority areas.
4. Choose the one highest-gap domain for your committed action this week.

Evidence

The Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ) is a psychometrically validated ACT measure developed by Wilson and colleagues; higher valued living scores are associated with better psychological wellbeing in research samples. (observational)

The VLQ is a validated research tool, not a clinical intervention; using it as a self-coaching audit is an application of the measure rather than a trialed intervention.

Sources

• Wilson et al. (2010), the Valued Living Questionnaire, Psychological Assessment

Common mistake

Treating all high-gap domains as equally urgent and trying to close multiple gaps at once, which dilutes effort and makes progress invisible — one domain at a time is the ACT approach.