Values List: 100 Core Values and a Free Tool to Find Your Top 5

A values list is only useful if it helps you choose. Below are 100 core values, each with a one-line meaning, inside a free sorting tool: mark the ones that feel true, narrow them down to five, then print your result or save it as a PDF. After the tool you'll find how to test your picks against your real life, examples of what core values look like in practice, and a simple way to use them when you're stuck on a decision.

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Free values list tool: find your top 5 core values

What are core values?

Your core values are the handful of qualities you most want your life and choices to reflect: honesty, family, freedom, growth, whatever they turn out to be for you. Social psychologist Shalom Schwartz, whose theory of basic human values has been tested with findings from 82 countries (Schwartz, 2012), lists six features all values share. Three are especially useful in daily life: values are desirable goals that motivate action; they apply across situations, unlike a rule for one specific case; and they're ordered by importance, so what defines you isn't simply having a value but how high it ranks against the others (Schwartz, 2022).

Schwartz adds something that explains why choosing your values feels hard: most of the time, values steer your everyday decisions without you noticing. They come into awareness when a choice has conflicting implications for two things you care about. That's why the best moment to work on your values is before the next hard decision, not in the middle of it.

How to find your core values in 20 minutes

1. 1

   Mark everything that resonates

   Use step 1 of the tool and go with your gut. Don't stop to debate; if you hesitate for more than a few seconds, skip it.

2. 2

   Merge the near-duplicates

   Honesty, Integrity and Truth often travel together, as do Freedom, Autonomy and Independence. Keep the word that sounds most like you and unmark the rest.

3. 3

   Narrow down to five

   Step 2 of the tool asks you to keep five. If you're stuck, compare two at a time: if you could only keep one of these for the next ten years, which would it be?

4. 4

   Define each one in your own words

   Write one sentence about what the value means to you and one thing you'd do on an ordinary day because of it. "Family" can mean Sunday dinners for one person and daily phone calls for another.

5. 5

   Check them against your real week

   Open your calendar and your bank app. Where do your five values show up? Where do they not show up at all? The gap is your first project.

6. 6

   Revisit once a year

   Save or print your result and redo the sort every January or after a big change, like a move, a new job or a new baby.

The 10 basic human values behind every values list

Every values list, including this one, is a long version of a much shorter map. Schwartz identified ten broad values recognized across cultures, each defined by the motivation behind it (Schwartz, 2012). He argues they're likely universal because they help people cope with three basic requirements of life: the needs of individuals as biological organisms, getting along with others, and the survival and welfare of groups (Schwartz, 2022). Seeing where your top five land on this map tells you what drives you and where your inner conflicts are likely to come from.

The ten values sit on a circle: neighbors tend to get along, opposites pull against each other. Schwartz describes two main tensions. Openness to change (self-direction, stimulation) pulls against conservation (security, conformity, tradition), and self-enhancement (power, achievement) pulls against self-transcendence (universalism, benevolence). Hedonism shares elements of openness and self-enhancement (Schwartz, 2022). So if your top five include both Freedom and Security, or both Achievement and Service, you haven't made a mistake. You've found the tension your biggest decisions will keep coming back to.

Core values examples: what they look like in real life

A value written on a list says very little. A value you can see in an ordinary week says a lot. Here's how ten common personal values translate into behavior, and the kind of decision each one helps settle.

Questions to uncover values that aren't on any list

If the tool left you with 30 picks or with none, these questions work from the other direction: they start from real moments in your life and work back to the value underneath. Answer two or three in writing, then go back to the tool. For more questions about who you are, see our questions to ask yourself.

How to use your values to make decisions

Values earn their keep when you're torn. A simple method: put the options side by side, score each one from 1 to 5 against each of your top five values, and look at where the scores differ. The total isn't a verdict, but it usually shows you which value you're about to trade away.

In this example the new job wins on paper but costs Family and Health. That's not automatically a reason to say no; it's a reason to negotiate. Two remote days a week would change both scores. Schwartz points out that people do pursue competing values, just not in a single act: they do it through different acts, at different times and in different settings (Schwartz, 2022). Sometimes the answer to a values conflict is "both, in sequence" rather than "one or the other." When you're stuck, these questions help:

• Which option would I be comfortable explaining to someone who shares my values?
• Which value am I giving up, and is that temporary or permanent?
• What would the version of me who lives by these five values do on an ordinary Tuesday?
• Is there a third option that honors both values, at different times?

Why it's worth knowing your values

Two lines of research make the case. In three longitudinal studies, Kennon Sheldon and Andrew Elliot found that people pursuing self-concordant goals, meaning goals consistent with their developing interests and core values, put more sustained effort into them and were more likely to reach them. When they did reach them, they also got bigger well-being benefits (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999). In practice: a goal that grows out of one of your values is easier to keep going and more satisfying to hit.

In a lab study at UCLA, 85 undergraduates first ranked five broad values (religion, social issues, politics, theory and aesthetics) by personal importance. Before a stressful task (a five-minute speech and five minutes of mental arithmetic in front of stern evaluators), they were randomly assigned to answer questions about either their top-ranked value or their fifth-ranked one. Those who reflected on their top value had significantly lower cortisol responses to the stress (Creswell et al., 2005).

Company values examples and "What are your core values?" at work

If you're here for company or team values rather than personal ones, they work the same way and fall into the same trap: a word like "integrity" on a wall means nothing until it's tied to behavior. Useful company values read like decisions ("We tell customers about a problem before they find it") rather than single words ("Transparency"). Here's the difference, with examples you can adapt:

If you're writing values for a team, test each one with a question: what would we do differently next month if we meant this? If the honest answer is "nothing," the value is decoration.

If you're asked "What are your core values?" in a job interview, pick two or three from your top five that are relevant to the role and give each a short, true story: the situation, what you did, and what it cost or earned you. A value with a story is believable. A list of five adjectives isn't.

Common mistakes when choosing your values

• Choosing who you think you should be. If a value is there because it sounds good, it won't guide anything. Ask yourself: when did I last act on this?
• Keeping fifteen. With too many "top" values, nothing is a priority. Five is a useful ceiling, and three is often enough.
• Confusing goals with values. "Buy a house" is a goal; Security or Family may be the value behind it. Goals end; values don't.
• Using values as a stick. Values are directions, not grades. Falling short on Health this week doesn't mean it isn't your value.
• Treating your list as final. Priorities shift with life stages. Redo the sort every year or after a big change.

Turn your values into daily habits

A value you never act on is just a word you like. Pick the value from your top five that's most missing from your current week and attach one small daily action to it: Health becomes a 10-minute walk, Connection becomes one message to a friend, Learning becomes 10 pages of a book. Track it with a free habit tracker, or check how balanced your life is right now with the wheel of life.

If you're not sure your five are the right five yet, start one step earlier. The Get to Know Yourself in 30 Days challenge spends its first week on them: you check what your calendar says you care about, find the value behind a goal you're chasing and end the week with your five values in writing. The following weeks look at where you come from, your work and fears, and how you make decisions.

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