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    Six Copyable Templates for Values Based Goals You Can Start Today

    Adult writing a focused personal goal

    Values-based goals are specific, completable actions you take in service of an ongoing direction you’ve named as important, like connection, health, or growth. They work better than generic goals because they run on self-concordance, your own sense that the goal is genuinely yours, not something you feel you should want. Start now: pick one value and write a single step you can finish in the next 24 hours.

    TL;DR:

    • Choosing one core value and turning it into a small, specific action within 24 hours greatly increases the likelihood of sustained progress.
    • Linking goals explicitly to your top values with the SMARTER framework ensures they remain meaningful and motivating over time.
    • Building if-then plans for inner obstacles like anxiety or shame helps maintain consistency and prevents emotional barriers from derailing efforts.
    • Tracking behavior with quick daily and weekly check-ins focuses on actions, not feelings, which supports long-term habit formation.
    • Limiting focus to 1 to 3 value-based goals at a time improves effort and prevents scattered attention, especially in the face of competing priorities.
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    Turn Values Into Small Steps
    Life is a Game helps make personal growth more approachable through self-guided tools that break overwhelming challenges into manageable steps.

    Table of Contents

    What Is a Values Based Goal, and How Is It Different From a Regular Goal?

    A value is a direction, not a destination. “Being a supportive partner” never gets checked off; you can act on it every day for the rest of your life. A goal is the opposite: it’s specific and finishable. “Text my partner one appreciation message tonight” is a goal that expresses the value of connection. Confusing the two is why so many people abandon their goals by February. When a goal is disconnected from any value, it survives on willpower alone. When it’s tethered to something you actually care about, it survives on meaning.

    Here’s a 10-minute exercise to find your top values, adapted from the kind of card-sort therapists use:

    1. Write down 15 to 20 value words that come to mind fast (freedom, mastery, honesty, adventure, security, service, curiosity).
    2. Cut the list to 10 by crossing out anything that feels borrowed from a parent, boss, or social media feed rather than truly yours.
    3. Cut again to 5 by asking, “If I could only act on one of these for a year, which would I miss the most if it disappeared?”
    4. Rank those 5 in order, forcing yourself to break any ties.
    5. Write one sentence for your top value describing what it looks like in an ordinary Tuesday, not a highlight-reel moment.

    A second exercise, the bullseye, works well alongside the card sort. Draw a target with four quadrants: work, relationships, health, and personal growth. Mark where you currently stand in each quadrant on a scale from center (fully aligned with your values) to outer ring (living far from them). This structured self-assessment, similar to versions used in clinical values workbooks, tends to surface at least one uncomfortable gap you’ve been avoiding.

    Once you have your top 3 to 5 values, expect friction between them. Ambition and rest often pull in opposite directions; so do generosity and financial security. That tension is normal. The next section shows you how to turn one value at a time into something you can actually do, and later we’ll cover how to prioritize when two values compete for the same hour of your day.

    What Is a Values Based Goal, and How Is It Different From a Regular Goal? — overview diagram

    How Do You Turn a Value Into a Specific Goal?

    Standard SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) work fine, but the “relevant” step is usually where people go through the motions. Make it explicit: name the exact value the goal serves. If you can’t name one, the goal probably doesn’t deserve your time this month.

    A useful upgrade is SMARTER, adding two letters that protect motivation over time:

    • Exciting: does the goal generate any anticipation, or does it just sound responsible?
    • Rewarded: how will you notice or celebrate progress, even in a small way?

    Skipping these two is why so many values-aligned goals still fizzle. A goal can be perfectly specific and still feel like eating vegetables. Building in a reward, even something as small as a checkmark in an app, keeps the self-concordance that makes the goal worth sustaining.

    Three examples of the full chain, value to goal to immediate action:

    • Connection → SMARTER goal: call one friend I haven’t spoken to in 3 months, this week, and actually schedule a follow-up plan → 24-hour micro-step: send one text right now asking when they’re free.
    • Health → SMARTER goal: walk outside for 15 minutes, 4 days this week, tracked in a simple log → 24-hour micro-step: put on shoes and walk to the end of the block, nothing more.
    • Focus → SMARTER goal: work in one 25-minute distraction-free block daily for 2 weeks → 24-hour micro-step: silence your phone and set a 10-minute timer today, not 25.

    Notice the micro-step is always smaller than the goal itself. That’s deliberate. The Center for Creative Leadership frames this as building specificity and support into a goal from the start, not hoping motivation carries you through vague intentions.

    What Stops People From Sticking to Values-Based Goals?

    Two kinds of obstacles derail values-aligned goals, and they need different plans. Inner barriers live in your head: anxiety before a hard conversation, shame about starting late, boredom halfway through week two. Outer barriers live in your calendar: no childcare, a packed schedule, tight money. Most people plan only for the outer ones and get blindsided by the inner ones.

    Build a paired if-then plan for each barrier you can predict:

    1. If anxiety spikes before I make the call, then I’ll take three slow breaths and dial anyway within 60 seconds.
    2. If I only have 10 minutes instead of 30, then I’ll do the 10-minute version rather than skip the day entirely.
    3. If shame shows up because I’m three days behind, then I’ll restart today without reviewing the missed days.
    4. If I feel bored halfway through, then I’ll finish the smallest possible version and stop, counting it as a win.

    The inner barriers are where a short “willingness” script from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps most. Willingness doesn’t mean waiting until the discomfort disappears; it means acting while the discomfort is still there. A version that works for many people: “I notice I don’t want to do this. I can feel that and still take the step.” A systematic review of ACT found this kind of psychological flexibility, holding an uncomfortable feeling without letting it block the action, consistently supports values-driven behavior across both clinical and everyday populations.

    Pro Tip: Rehearse your if-then plans out loud once, before you need them. Saying “if I feel anxious before the call, then I breathe and dial anyway” in your own voice makes the plan far easier to recall in the actual moment than a plan you only wrote down.

    If avoidance itself is the recurring obstacle, whether that’s dodging phone calls, appointments, or specific feared situations, a structured, gradual approach tends to work better than white-knuckling it. Conquer Fear is built around that kind of step-by-step exposure-inspired practice, breaking a feared activity into small, ratable steps rather than asking you to face the whole thing at once.

    How Do You Track Progress Without It Becoming a Chore?

    Skip the elaborate spreadsheet. A two-question daily check takes under a minute: Did I act on my value today, even a little? And how close did that action feel to the value I named? Answer both with a number or a single word, nothing more.

    Weekly, write three lines: what you did, what got in the way, and one adjustment for next week. That’s the entire review. Monthly, revisit your bullseye from Section 2 and re-rate each quadrant. Movement of even one point toward the center is real progress worth noticing.

    A few ground rules keep this system honest:

    • Measure behavior, not mood. “I made the call” counts even on a day you felt terrible about it.
    • If a goal gets skipped three weeks running, that’s a signal to shrink it, not to try harder at the same size.
    • Treat a paused goal as data, not failure. It tells you the goal or the timing was wrong, not that you are.
    • Revisit your top values list every quarter; values rarely vanish, but their priority order shifts with life circumstances.

    Research on goal self-concordance finds that goals aligned with a person’s intrinsic values predict sustained effort and higher well-being over time, compared with goals pursued mainly to satisfy outside pressure or guilt.

    That’s not a minor correlation. It’s the mechanism explaining why the same 15-minute walk feels sustainable when it’s tied to a value like health, and feels like a chore when it’s tied only to a number on a scale. The full self-concordance research is worth reading if you want the underlying evidence rather than just the takeaway.

    Six Copyable Templates for Common Values

    Each template below follows the same chain: value, SMARTER goal, 24-hour micro-step, likely barrier, and if-then response. Copy whichever matches your top value and adjust the specifics.

    1. Connection — Goal: have one uninterrupted, phone-free dinner with a family member weekly. Micro-step: text them tonight to pick the day. Barrier: work runs late. If-then: if I’m running late, then I text a 15-minute delay instead of canceling.
    2. Health — Goal: cook one home meal from scratch, three times a week, for a month. Micro-step: write tomorrow’s grocery list right now. Barrier: too tired after work. If-then: if I’m too tired to cook, then I make the 10-minute version, not takeout.
    3. Curiosity — Goal: read 10 pages of a nonfiction book four nights a week. Micro-step: put the book on your pillow now. Barrier: scrolling instead. If-then: if I pick up my phone first, then I read one page before unlocking it.
    4. Integrity — Goal: have one honest, overdue conversation this month instead of avoiding it. Micro-step: write the opening sentence you’d say. Barrier: fear of the reaction. If-then: if I feel the urge to postpone again, then I set a specific day and tell one other person about it.
    5. Focus — Goal: complete two distraction-free 25-minute blocks daily for two weeks. Micro-step: silence notifications for the next hour. Barrier: an urgent-feeling notification. If-then: if a notification pulls my attention, then I finish the current block before checking it.
    6. Service — Goal: volunteer or help someone concretely once a week for a month. Micro-step: message one organization or person today. Barrier: not knowing where to start. If-then: if I don’t know who to help, then I ask one person in my network what they need.

    If two of these compete for the same hour, don’t try to serve both. Pick one primary value for the quarter and let the others sit in the background; you can rotate which value leads next quarter without abandoning the others entirely.

    What Does the Research Actually Say About Values and Goals?

    The evidence behind this approach isn’t a single study; it’s a convergence of two separate research lines that happen to point the same direction. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy research shows that values work paired with psychological flexibility supports committed action, even when that action is uncomfortable, across both clinical and non-clinical groups. Separately, goal self-concordance research finds that goals matching a person’s own intrinsic values, rather than external pressure, predict sustained effort and better well-being.

    Autonomous motivation, wanting to act because the goal is genuinely yours, predicts a stronger sense of meaning than simply removing obstacles or outside pressure ever does.

    Three practical takeaways follow directly from this:

    • Keep your active list to 1 to 3 value-linked goals at a time; more than that dilutes attention across all of them.
    • Make the first version of any goal smaller than feels necessary.
    • Track what you did, not how you felt about doing it. Feelings lag behind behavior change by weeks, sometimes longer.

    A Focus Struggle, and the Value That Fixed It

    My own version of this problem was focus, not motivation. I’d sit down to write and my attention would leak out to email within four minutes. I didn’t need more discipline; I needed a value to point at. Mine turned out to be craftsmanship, doing careful work I could stand behind. That reframed the goal from “stop being distracted” to “give this paragraph 25 honest minutes.”

    The script: value (craftsmanship) → micro-step (close every tab except the one document) → if-then (if I reach for my phone, then I put it in the other room before starting) → weekly review (how many blocks did I actually finish, not how focused I felt during them). Some weeks I hit two blocks instead of ten. That’s still data, not failure.

    Borrow this shape for whatever your struggle actually is. The value changes, the mechanics don’t.

    — Ryan

    A Tool for Turning Values Into Daily Micro-Steps

    Writing a values-based goal on paper is the easy part; remembering to act on it on a busy Wednesday is where most plans quietly die. Life is a Game is built around that exact gap: it breaks a goal down into small steps, tracks what you actually completed, and uses light game mechanics so progress feels like something worth noticing instead of one more item on a to-do list.

    Life is a Game

    If your value points toward attention and getting distracted less, Focus Quest turns the 25-minute blocks from the last section into a structured daily practice with visible progress. If your struggle is closer to avoidance, whether that’s the gym, a doctor’s appointment, or another specific fear, Conquer Fear uses step-by-step exposure-inspired practice to make the outer-ring gaps from your bullseye more approachable, one rated step at a time. Life coaches and accountability coaches use a companion platform to assign these same kinds of steps to clients between sessions; if you work with one, the Founding cohort plan at $29 per month per coach is worth a look.

    None of this is therapy, and it doesn’t diagnose or treat anything. It’s a self-guided tool for the part everyone struggles with: remembering to take the next tiny step. Start there. Open the app, pick your smallest value-linked action, and log just that one.

    Where to Go Deeper

    This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified doctor. Consult a qualified healthcare professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.

    Sources

    FAQ

    What are some examples of personal values?

    Common examples include connection, honesty, health, curiosity, security, service, growth, and creativity. The exercise that matters more than the list itself is narrowing it down: most people find they’re chasing 15 values on paper but can only genuinely act on 3 to 5 at once.

    What are the core values people build goals around most often?

    There’s no single official list of “core” values, since they vary by person and by framework. Values commonly used in ACT-based exercises include family, health, achievement, connection, integrity, and growth, and the values-based goals worksheet offers a fuller sortable list.

    Can you give an example of a goal built from a value?

    If your value is health, a matching goal might be “walk 15 minutes, 4 days a week, for a month.” The value is the ongoing direction; the goal is the specific, finishable action that expresses it this month.

    How many values should I actually try to live by?

    Most people do better narrowing down to 3 to 5 top values rather than trying to honor 15 at once. Pick one as your primary focus for the current quarter, since research on goal self-concordance links focused, intrinsically aligned goals to more sustained effort than scattered ones.

    What if my goal feels aligned with my values but I still avoid it?

    That’s usually an inner barrier, not a values problem: anxiety, shame, or discomfort showing up before the action. Build a specific if-then plan for that feeling and practice willingness, taking the step while the discomfort is still present, rather than waiting for it to pass first.

    Related

    Working on this yourself? See Conquer Fear

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