If you want to identify your top values in life, I can’t think of a better way than by paying a visit to this site.
The site presents you with a long list of hundreds of abstract values like creativity, growth, love, exuberance, etc. You select the ones that appeal to you and then rank them using a forced choice matrix. Basically, you are presented with two of your values (like creativity and love) and you are forced to choose one over the other. This continues with every possible pair. Then your selections are ranked to give you a list of your top values.
I was astounded at how easy it was to clarify the things that are most important to me in my life right now. This method is far better than a personality test that wants to shoehorn you into one of a few selected categories. I’ve taken many of those tests; some “serious,” some for fun. I’ve always found it easy to spot the flaws in the questions and methodology of such tests. Mainly I’ve been looking for eye-opening questions, a new way of thinking about something, or a test that gives unusually consistent results.
This tool is especially good because it relies on you choosing your values consciously. Many approaches to personal growth assume that your values or your purpose in life is something hardcoded inside of you, waiting to be discovered. This is false. Although you may be inclined to certain directions in life because of your upbringing or genetics, what you value and who you become is ultimately your own choice. You do not need to discover who you are. You need to choose it consciously.
The results of the forced-choice values matrix will be entirely unique to you. Rather than fitting you into one of five categories, or even one of sixteen (like the Myers-Briggs test), your results will be only one of millions of possibilities.
My top values are:
1. Integrity
2. Excellence
3. Youthfulness
4. Independence
Here’s how I did it. I chose about 60 values initially. This would take ages to click through, since each new selection increases the list exponentially. It would take 45 clicks to compare 10 values, while it would take 190 clicks to compare 20. Luckily, many of my initial selections were related. In my head, I made groups of similar values like health, vitality, youthfulness, agility, dexterity, and then selected the one value that best represented all of them. Eliminating all of the redundant values left me with 14.
I ranked the 14 values in the matrix (it took 91 steps to do so). As I ranked each value, I noticed that some were so closely related that it was hard to choose between them until I thought more clearly about what they meant to me. When I looked at the results, I realized that although I considered each value to be a very strong one, 8 of the 14 values accounted for just slightly over 80% of my votes. I decided to eliminate a few more, not based on the math, but based on redundancy and clearer thinking about what each value truly means to me. I wound up, by coincidence, with 8 values.
I re-ranked these 8 values and found the results heavily skewed. 4 values accounted for 80% of my votes. And when I looked at the list again, I realized that the bottom four were part of the top four.
Here is my list from above including some of the redundant values that I rejected along the way. I consider these to be subsumed or implied by the four main ones. You may not agree with all of my generalizing, but it’s a helpful way for me to develop a shortlist of what is most important to me.
1. Integrity
requires: Consciousness, Honesty, Clarity
2. Excellence
requires: Growth, Creativity, Persistence
3. Youthfulness
requires: Passion, Exuberance, Curiosity, Imagination, Adventure, Vitality, Spunk
4. Independence
requires: Curiosity, Imagination, Creativity, Persistence, Freedom
This is a wonderful exercise, and I recommend spending a few minutes to do it. How you sort and re-rank — if you do it at all — is up to you.
Don’t bother discovering who you are. Choose who you will be.
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