Values Exploration

Jul 25, 2025

List of Core Values

Initial Ranking 7/25/25

  1. Creating things
  2. Views on the meaning of suffering
  3. Valuing spirituality
  4. Working in a creative environment
  5. Appreciating beauty in nature, music, etc.
  6. Valuing love
  7. Views on morality, honesty, integrity
  8. Valuing education, professional, and personal growth
  9. Valuing leisure, hobbies, and recreation
  10. Valuing mental health
  11. Valuing romantic partnerships
  12. Valuing parent, child, and other family relationships
  13. Attitudes towards inevitable events such as illness, death, and loss
  14. Valuing friendships
  15. Valuing physical health
  16. Valuing a career
  17. Valuing charity and volunteering

Distribution

  • ███████████ 25% Creativity
  • ████████ 18% Attitudinal
  • ███████ 16% Experiential
  • ██████ 14% Health
  • █████ 11% Achievement
  • █████ 9% Relationships
  • ████ 7% Recreation

Examples / Rationale

(Numbers represent how well I feel this part of my life is going / how well I feel I'm living out this value)

1. Creating things (Creativity) - 9/10

  • I value...creating things over finding meaning in my suffering

2. Views on the meaning of suffering (Attitudinal) - 7/10

  • I value...finding meaning in my suffering over my spiritual connection to the world

3. Valuing spirituality (Health) - 6/10

  • I value...my spiritual connection to existence over being around creative ideas and people

4. Working in a creative environment (Creativity) - 4/10

  • I value...being around new ideas and creative people over appreciating beauty in the world

5. Appreciating beauty in nature, music, etc. (Experiential) - 10/10

  • I value...finding beauty in the world over feeling loved

6. Valuing love (Experiential) - 4/10

  • I value...feeling loved over doing the right thing

7. Views on morality, honesty, integrity (Attitudinal) - 5/10

  • I value...doing the right thing over seeking to improve myself

8. Valuing education, professional, and personal growth (Achievement) - 6/10

  • I value...improving myself over having recreation time

9. Valuing leisure, hobbies, and recreation (Recreation) - 2/10

  • I value...free time over doing what is good for my mental health

10. Valuing mental health (Health) - 5/10

  • I value...doing what is good for my mental health over being an equal partner

11. Valuing romantic partnerships (Relationships) - 4/10

  • I value...having a strong romantic connection over fulfilling my duties as a parent/child/brother

12. Valuing parent, child, and other family relationships (Relationships) - 8/10

  • I value...being a good parent/child/brother over coming to terms with inevitable events

13. Attitudes towards inevitable events such as illness, death, and loss (Attitudinal) - 6/10

  • I value...coming to terms with inevitable events over having friends in my life

14. Valuing friendships (Relationships) - 4/10

  • I value...connections with friends over eating, exercising, and sleeping well

15. Valuing physical health (Health) - 7/10

  • I value...eating, exercising, and sleeping well over getting a promotion

16. Valuing a career (Achievement) - 6/10

  • I value...getting promoted over volunteer work (EWB)

17. Valuing charity and volunteering (Recreation) - 10/10

Questions / Thoughts

Could this be considered "putting my priorities in order"? Or is this just "knowing who I am", and now I need to choose how/if I will align my priorities with this list?

Is the "optimal prioritization" just aligning my goals and to-dos with my list of values? E.g. if I want to 1) have a good marriage, 2) improve my mental health, and 3) write code and build things: should I prioritize writing code until I'm living out that value satisfactorily, and only then prioritize my mental health? Should I then prioritize my mental health until I'm satisfied with that value, and only then prioritize building a strong marriage? Obviously this is very robotic, but a genuine question is behind it: How does one prioritize their life in accordance with their values?

I assume there is some amount of change in values as you go through life, but I believe these values are generally pretty constant. The main reason I would see for "drastic" changes would be that I had the wrong idea about what it means to value that thing, e.g. I have suspicions about how much I value leisure time versus how often I use it to escape or find comfort.

Re-Ranking 7/29/25

  1. Views on the meaning of suffering
  2. Valuing spirituality
  3. Views on morality, honesty, integrity
  4. Creating things
  5. Appreciating beauty in nature, music, etc.
  6. Working in a creative environment
  7. Valuing love
  8. Valuing education, professional, and personal growth
  9. Valuing romantic partnerships
  10. Valuing mental health
  11. Valuing parent, child, and other family relationships
  12. Attitudes towards inevitable events such as illness, death, and loss
  13. Valuing friendships
  14. Valuing physical health
  15. Valuing leisure, hobbies, and recreation
  16. Valuing a career
  17. Valuing charity and volunteering

Why the changes?

  • I will not value creating something if I believe it is the wrong thing to do or if I believe it will lead to suffering.
  • Maybe I don't feel like an equal partner in marriage yet, but that doesn't mean I don't value romantics partnerships more highly. Valuing things like mental health are important to me particularly because they affect my ability to be a good husband, not because I value it over my romantic partner.
  • Like I mentioned in my question above, I don't necessarily value leisure or hobbies super highly - but I do lean on them heavily as a form of escapism. It's an area for growth, especially because it can impact my ability to live out my other values.
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