The Values Compass
A worksheet to surface the handful of values you actually live by — not the ones you'd put on a poster — and use them as a decision filter the next time you're stuck.
Most "values exercises" hand you a list of 200 nice words and ask you to circle ten. You end up with honesty, growth, family — a list that describes a good person, not you. Useless when you're standing at an actual fork in the road.
This one works backwards. Instead of picking values you admire, it reverse-engineers the ones you already defend, spend on, and lose track of time inside. Those are the real ones.
Mine your evidence, not your ideals
Write down three moments from the last year when you felt most alive, and three when you felt most resentful. Don't interpret yet. Just capture them. Your values live in the pattern underneath, not in the words you'd choose for a bio.
Name the value under each moment
For each alive moment, ask: what was being honored here? For each resentful moment, ask: what was being violated? Resentment is one of the most honest signals you have. It fires when something you value is being stepped on.
Cut the list to five
You'll have a dozen. Force it down to five by asking of each: "Have I sacrificed something real to protect this?" If the answer is no, it's an aspiration, not a value. Aspirations are fine, but they don't belong on the compass.
Write your decision filter
Turn your top value into a single question you can ask in the moment, e.g., "Does this protect my freedom or trade it away?" When you're stuck, you don't need more options — you need a sharper filter. This is it.
Keep the finished page somewhere you'll see it before the next hard decision — not after. That's the whole point.
Download the printable Values Compass
The full worksheet as a clean, one-page PDF: all four passes and a decision filter to keep where you'll see it.
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