If you don’t know your values, what’s driving your decisions?
Your values connect you to yourself, the people around you and the world you live in. Know them, and your decisions get clearer. You stop swerving away from what’s hard and start steering toward what matters most. Every result in The Mental Framework Assessment points to a choice. This is what you choose from. You walk away with your values in three layers: the ones your life gets designed around, the five you won’t trade away, and the three you check in with every day.
Values aren’t what you admire. They’re what you’d fight to keep.
Your design: pick 8 to 10.
These are what your life gets designed around. Pick the ones that make you say “that’s me.” Not who you think you’re supposed to be. Who you are on your best day. Go fast.
Your non-negotiables: five.
The ones you won’t trade away, even under pressure. When you’re tempted to compromise, these hold the line.
Your daily three.
Check in with these every day. As you plan your day: what would move me toward living these today? As you look back on it: did today move me toward them, or away?
Say what they mean to you.
One short line each, in your words. “Freedom” means something different to everybody. Keep ours or write your own.
Now your living values.
Here’s where we’re different. Values aren’t only big words. The ocean can be a value. So can music, writing, or your morning walk. If it connects you to yourself, your people and the world you live in, it’s a value. Live without it and you end up somewhere that was never going to work. Pick up to three, or add your own.
Your Values Card
On a phone, press and hold the image and tap Save to Photos. Then set it as your lock screen.
Print at 100%, cut on the dashed lines, fold in half. One for your wallet, one for the car or your desk.
When something doesn’t feel right, ask yourself:
- Is this a Mental Framework?
- Am I compromising a value?
- What am I out of alignment with?
Stuck and can’t decide? Slow down, observe, and pull up your card:
Does this move me toward what matters, or away from it?
If it moves you away, that’s the Mental Framework talking. You already know what to do next.
Trust is built when your values, your words and your actions line up. It starts with knowing your values.
Do this today: look at your calendar for this week. Find one place you’re living against one of these. That’s your first Experiment.
Your 8 to 10 are the blueprint. Knowing them isn’t the same as living by them. Start with your daily three, today.
Take the Mental Framework Assessment
The Values Card is a self-reflection tool. It is not therapy, not a replacement for therapy, and not a psychological test.