Core Values Assessment: 60 Values and a 5-Step Exercise
A core values assessment is an exercise that helps you name the handful of values that matter most to you, define them in your own words and check how closely your life matches them. You can do one in about 45 minutes with a values list, a few story prompts and a scoring table. Below is a five-step core values assessment, a list of 60 values to choose from, a scoring sheet with a filled-in example, the research-based framework behind most values tests, and how to use your results for decisions and goals.
Coaches who want to run this with clients will find a section at the end on doing it inside Coachful, where our team will build the worksheet in your account for free. If you're a coach looking for the in-session version, our values clarification exercise for coaches covers facilitation in depth.
What a core values assessment tells you (and what it doesn't)
Values are what you consider important in how you live: the qualities you want to act from and the things you're willing to protect. A values assessment makes them explicit, so you can use them when choosing between two good options or noticing why a situation feels wrong.
It won't tell you your personality, diagnose anything or rank you against other people. Most online "values tests" aren't validated instruments. The exercise below doesn't pretend to be one either; its value comes from the thinking it forces, not from a score.
The values list: 60 core values to choose from
Read the whole list once without choosing. Then go back and circle any that make you react, positively or negatively. Add your own if a word is missing.
| Connection | Achievement | Freedom and expression | Growth | Security and peace | Contribution and integrity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belonging | Ambition | Adventure | Challenge | Balance | Accountability |
| Community | Competence | Autonomy | Courage | Calm | Authenticity |
| Compassion | Excellence | Creativity | Curiosity | Faith | Fairness |
| Family | Financial security | Flexibility | Discipline | Nature | Generosity |
| Friendship | Influence | Fun | Health | Order | Gratitude |
| Kindness | Leadership | Humor | Learning | Peace | Honesty |
| Love | Mastery | Independence | Openness | Safety | Justice |
| Loyalty | Recognition | Play | Resilience | Simplicity | Purpose |
| Partnership | Success | Spontaneity | Self-respect | Stability | Respect |
| Trust | Wealth | Variety | Wisdom | Tradition | Service |
The five-step core values assessment
Step 1: Collect candidates from your own stories
Lists are useful, but people tend to circle the values they think they should have. Start with your experience instead. Write a short paragraph for each of these:
- A moment when you felt most like yourself. What was happening, and what made it feel right?
- A moment you were proud of, even if nobody else noticed.
- A moment you were angry or deeply uncomfortable. What line was crossed?
For each story, ask "What was I honoring, or what was being violated?" and write down the value words that come up. Then add any circled words from the list. You'll usually have 15 to 25 candidates.
Step 2: Narrow to ten
Group near-duplicates (honesty, authenticity and integrity often belong together; pick the word that feels most like yours). Cross out the ones that are really "should" values, the ones a parent, employer or culture wants from you but that don't move you. Stop at ten.
Step 3: Choose your top five with paired comparisons
Compare values two at a time: "If I could keep only one of these for the next five years, freedom or security?" Tally the winners. Your five highest tallies are your working core values. This is uncomfortable on purpose; it's the step that turns a nice list into a set of priorities.
Step 4: Define each value in one sentence
"Freedom" means different things to different people. Write what it means to you, in behavior: "Freedom, for me, means choosing how I spend my mornings and not needing permission to try things." A value you can't define is hard to live by.
Step 5: Score importance against how you live it
For each of your five values, give two scores from 1 to 10: how important it is to you, and how fully you're living it right now. Check the second score against evidence, not feelings: your calendar for the last two weeks and your last month of spending. The gap between the two numbers is where your next goal is.
Core values assessment scoring sheet
Copy this sheet and fill it in for step 5.
| Value | What it means to me | Importance (1 to 10) | How I'm living it (1 to 10) | Evidence | One action this month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | |||||
| 2. | |||||
| 3. | |||||
| 4. | |||||
| 5. |
A filled-in example
Here's the sheet completed by a team lead in her late thirties who felt busy but flat.
| Value | What it means to me | Importance | Living it | Evidence | One action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family | Being properly present for my kids on weeknights | 10 | 5 | Worked past 7pm on 6 of the last 10 workdays | Laptop closed by 6:30 on Mondays and Thursdays |
| Learning | Getting better at something I care about every month | 8 | 3 | No course, book or new skill in six months | One chapter of a leadership book each Sunday |
| Health | Having energy left at 4pm | 8 | 6 | Walking twice a week, sleep about 6 hours | Phone out of the bedroom on weeknights |
| Autonomy | Choosing how my team works without waiting for sign-off | 7 | 7 | Most decisions are mine | Keep as is |
| Honesty | Saying the difficult thing kindly, early | 9 | 6 | Avoided a hard conversation with one report for a month | Book that conversation this week |
The two biggest gaps (family and learning) explain the flat feeling better than "I'm busy" did, and both have an action she can take this week. The autonomy row matters too: a value that's already well lived is something to protect when a new job offer comes along.
The research behind values assessments
Most validated values instruments are built on social psychologist Shalom Schwartz's theory of basic human values. His overview of the theory describes ten basic personal values recognized across cultures, with findings from 82 countries. They're arranged in a circle: neighboring values are compatible, and opposite values pull against each other. The definitions below follow Wikipedia's summary of the theory.
| Higher-order group | Value | Defining goal |
|---|---|---|
| Openness to change | Self-direction | Independent thought and action: choosing, creating, exploring |
| Openness to change | Stimulation | Excitement, novelty and challenge in life |
| Self-enhancement | Hedonism | Pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself |
| Self-enhancement | Achievement | Personal success through demonstrating competence |
| Self-enhancement | Power | Social status and prestige, control over people and resources |
| Conservation | Security | Safety, harmony and stability of society, relationships and self |
| Conservation | Conformity | Restraint of actions likely to upset others or violate norms |
| Conservation | Tradition | Respect for and commitment to the customs of one's culture or religion |
| Self-transcendence | Benevolence | Caring for the welfare of the people you're close to |
| Self-transcendence | Universalism | Understanding, tolerance and protection for the welfare of all people and nature |
The circle explains why some of your top five feel in tension. Adventure and stability, or achievement and benevolence, sit on opposite sides. That isn't a mistake in your list; it's a trade-off you'll keep making, and naming it makes the choices easier.
Writing about your values also has measurable effects. Geoffrey Cohen and David Sherman's 2014 review of self-affirmation research describes interventions in which people write about their core personal values, and reports improvements in education, health and relationship outcomes, sometimes lasting months or years. Step 4 of this assessment, writing what each value means to you, is a light version of that.
For work values specifically, CareerOneStop's Work Values Matcher is another option to try alongside this exercise.
How to use your core values
- Decisions. When choosing between options, score each against your top five. The option that honors more of them, especially your top two, is usually the one you won't regret.
- Goals. Turn your biggest gap into a goal. "Family: 10 importance, 5 living it" becomes a goal about weeknight hours. Our SMART goals template and personal development plan show how to write it.
- Saying no. A request that conflicts with a top value is a strong candidate for a polite no.
- Work. Values explain why a well-paid job can feel wrong. Bring your list to career conversations; our career coaching questions use values throughout.
- Revisit yearly. Core values are fairly stable, but their order shifts with life stages. New parents often see family jump; people after an illness often see health move up.
Common mistakes in a values assessment
- Picking aspirational values. If you circled "discipline" because you wish you had more, it may be a goal, not a value.
- Keeping fifteen. Fifteen values can justify any choice. Five forces trade-offs.
- Skipping the evidence check. Your calendar and bank statement are more honest than your intentions.
- Treating it as a verdict. A low "living it" score isn't a failure; it's the most useful number on the page.
Running a core values assessment with coaching clients in Coachful
Values work lands best when the client does steps 1 and 2 alone before the session and you do steps 3 to 5 together. Then the values need to show up again in week six, not just in the session they were found. Here's how coaches run it in Coachful, all included in your membership.
Start from the values tools
Tools > Explore has a set of values tools you can make your own: Values ranking and alignment, Values compass, Values into action, Values-based decision, Values trade-off, Values at work and a guided Values reset practice. There's also a Values clarifier AI tool: a conversation that draws values out of moments in the client's life and names the three that matter most right now.
Send it as prep, read it before the call
Attach the worksheet to a session as prep so the client sees it under Before your session. You read the stories before you meet, and spend the session on the paired comparisons, where a coach's questions matter most.
Turn values into an identity, a goal and habits
A worksheet question can be set to Use answer in… an identity statement, a goal, a task or a habit. A client who writes "I'm someone who is present for my family" can save it as their identity, which appears in their morning visualization as "I am..." alongside the goal they're working toward. The one-action-per-value column becomes habits with reminders.
Make values visual
Send a vision board resource and each client gets a private, editable copy for images and words that represent their values.
Or let our team build it
Coachful's team will build this values assessment worksheet, a values-based program or the follow-up check-ins in your account for free, on every plan. Ask from Create > We'll build it for you; the team usually replies within about 24 hours. Here's what the white-glove service includes, and how it fits Coachful for life coaches. The strengths-based coaching questions pair well with values work.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my core values?
Write about three moments: when you felt most like yourself, when you were proud, and when you were angry or uncomfortable. Pull the values out of each story, add words from a values list, narrow to ten, then use paired comparisons to choose your top five and define each in a sentence.
How many core values should I have?
Three to five. Fewer than three rarely covers a whole life; more than five stops helping with decisions, because any choice can be justified by one of them. Five is a good working number that you can revisit each year.
What are examples of core values?
Family, honesty, freedom, learning, health, security, creativity, service, achievement and kindness are common ones. The list on this page has 60 grouped into connection, achievement, freedom and expression, growth, security and peace, and contribution and integrity.
Is there a scientific core values assessment?
The most researched framework is Shalom Schwartz's theory of ten basic human values, measured with instruments such as the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Most online values quizzes aren't validated, so treat them as prompts for thinking rather than measurements.
What is the difference between values and goals?
A value is a direction you keep choosing, like learning or family. A goal is a destination with an end point, like finishing a course by June. Values help you pick goals that matter to you, and goals turn values into action.
How often should I redo a core values assessment?
Once a year, and after big life changes such as a new child, a career move or an illness. Your core values usually stay recognizable, but their order and what they mean in practice shift.
Can Coachful build a values assessment for my coaching clients?
Yes. The white-glove service is free on every Coachful plan. Ask from Create > We'll build it for you and the team will build the values worksheet, a values program or follow-up check-ins in your account, usually within about 24 hours.
