VALUES · 10 min read

Core Values List: 200+ Values, With Examples of Each in Action

Core values are the small number of things that actually decide your choices when two good options pull in different directions. This core values list gives you 231 personal values in 12 groups, and each one comes with a single line describing what the value looks like when someone genuinely lives it, not what it means in a dictionary.

A list is a starting point, not an answer. Almost every value sounds admirable, so most people tick twenty words and learn very little. What tells you something is which value wins when it collides with another: the hierarchy, not the list. The sections below show how to use the list to get there, followed by the full list, worked examples and the exact questions to find your own.

By Shahrukh AtharUpdated 13 October 2026

What are core values?

A value is a standard you use to judge whether something is worth doing, keeping or walking away from. It is usually an abstract noun — freedom, security, recognition, loyalty — and you rarely notice it until it is threatened. Your core values are the few at the top of the order: the ones that hold when everything else gives way.

Two points matter more than any definition. First, values are tied to context: what matters to you about work may differ sharply from what matters to you in a relationship. Second, there is often a gap between the values people state and the ones that govern their behaviour under pressure. The values framework calls these stated and operational values, and most of the useful work happens in that gap.

How to use this list

Read the list with one context in mind — your career, your marriage, your business — rather than your whole life at once. Then work through three steps.

Shortlist. Mark every value that produces a physical reaction as you read it, not every value you approve of. Aim for 15 to 25. If you mark almost a whole group, keep its strongest two.
Test against real choices. For each value on the shortlist, find a specific decision in the last two years where it cost you something — money, time, comfort or approval — and you honoured it anyway. If you cannot find one, move the value to a separate column called “aspirations”. It may matter to you, but it is not yet running your life.
Rank by conflict. Take the surviving values in pairs and ask which one you would protect if you could only keep one. Freedom or security? Loyalty or honesty? The order that emerges is your working hierarchy.

The full list of values (231 values in 12 groups)

Each value below has a one-line example of the behaviour that shows it in practice. Use those lines as a test: if the behaviour does not describe you on an ordinary week, the value may be one you admire rather than one you live.

Integrity & character 21

Values about who you are when nobody is checking and the cost of the truth is real.

Honesty: You say what is true even when a vaguer answer would be easier to give.
Integrity: Your private choices match your public statements, including the ones nobody would ever find out about.
Accountability: You name your own part in a failure before anyone has to ask.
Responsibility: You treat what is in your care as yours to see through, not to hand back.
Authenticity: You behave the same way in the boardroom, at home and with strangers.
Loyalty: You stand by people when it is inconvenient, not only when it is rewarded.
Trustworthiness: People hand you sensitive information and it goes no further than you.
Reliability: When you say Thursday, it arrives on Thursday without a reminder.
Courage: You act on what you believe is right while still feeling the fear.
Humility: You credit others readily and ask questions in areas where you are weak.
Fairness: You apply the same rules to people you like and people you don’t.
Justice: You speak up when someone is treated wrongly, even if it costs you standing.
Transparency: You show your reasoning and your numbers so others can check them.
Sincerity: Your compliments and apologies are meant, so you give them less often than most.
Commitment: You keep going with a promise after the initial enthusiasm has worn off.
Honour: You keep your word as if your name depended on it, because it does.
Dignity: You hold yourself with composure and refuse to treat anyone as beneath you.
Respect: You listen fully to people you disagree with before deciding what you think.
Self-respect: You walk away from arrangements that require you to keep shrinking yourself.
Conviction: You hold a position under pressure because you have thought it through.
Candour: You give direct feedback early instead of letting a problem quietly grow.

Achievement & mastery 20

Values about getting better, getting things done and having something to show for the effort.

Achievement: You set concrete goals and feel restless until they are actually met.
Ambition: You aim at targets that others call unrealistic and plan how to reach them.
Competence: You would rather do fewer things properly than many things badly.
Mastery: You practise the unglamorous fundamentals long after others have moved on.
Success: You measure your year against clear outcomes, not against how busy it felt.
Determination: You come back to the same obstacle the next day with a different approach.
Perseverance: You keep working through the long, dull middle of a project.
Drive: You start before you are asked and are usually the last to stop.
Hard work: You put in the hours the result actually needs, not the hours that look good.
Productivity: You protect your best hours for the work that moves things forward.
Results: You judge plans by what they produce, not by how elegant they sound.
Winning: You study the scoreboard and adjust until you come out ahead.
Expertise: People bring you their hardest questions because you know the field in depth.
Challenge: You pick the harder assignment because the easy one would bore you.
Focus: You say no to good opportunities to finish the one that matters most.
Initiative: You spot what needs doing and do it without waiting for permission.
Resilience: After a setback you take the lesson, recover your footing and go again.
Progress: You track small, steady gains and notice when things have stalled.
Effectiveness: You choose the approach that actually works over the one you prefer.
Competitiveness: You find out who is best at something and work to beat them.

Freedom & independence 16

Values about choosing for yourself: your time, your direction and the terms you work on.

Freedom: You arrange your life so that few people can dictate how you spend it.
Independence: You make your own decisions and accept that the consequences are yours too.
Autonomy: You do your best work when you are given the outcome, not the method.
Self-reliance: You learn to fix things yourself before you think of asking for help.
Choice: You keep several options open and resist commitments that close them too early.
Flexibility: You change plans without fuss when circumstances shift under you.
Spontaneity: You say yes to the unplanned invitation and rearrange the rest later.
Privacy: You decide carefully what you share, with whom, and keep the rest to yourself.
Self-determination: You set your own direction rather than following the path laid out for you.
Individuality: You keep your own tastes and opinions even when the group goes another way.
Nonconformity: You question “how it’s always done” and will do it differently if it’s better.
Solitude: You deliberately make time alone to think, recover and hear yourself.
Mobility: You keep life light enough to move city, country or career when needed.
Ownership: You prefer building something that is yours to renting a place in someone else’s plan.
Variety: You rotate projects, routes and routines because sameness drains you.
Time freedom: You trade a higher income for control over your own calendar.

Security & stability 19

Values about protecting what you have and knowing the ground will hold tomorrow.

Security: You make decisions that reduce the chance of losing what you have built.
Stability: You choose the steady job, house or relationship over the exciting gamble.
Financial security: You keep savings, insurance and a buffer before spending on extras.
Wealth: You build assets deliberately and think in years and decades, not months.
Financial independence: You work towards the point where money no longer decides your choices.
Safety: You check the risks first and make sure the people with you are protected.
Predictability: You like knowing what next week holds and plan your life around it.
Certainty: You gather facts until you are sure before you commit to a decision.
Prudence: You weigh the downside of a decision as seriously as the upside.
Thrift: You spend carefully, repair before replacing and dislike waste of any kind.
Tradition: You keep the customs you inherited and pass them on to the next generation.
Consistency: You behave the same way week after week so people know what to expect.
Comfort: You arrange your surroundings so that daily life is easy and unhurried.
Preparedness: You have a plan, and a backup plan, before you need either of them.
Home: You put real effort into a place where you and yours feel settled.
Routine: You rely on fixed daily habits to keep the important things happening.
Caution: You wait, watch and test before trusting a new person or opportunity.
Protection: You step in to shield the people who depend on you from harm.
Continuity: You keep what works running smoothly rather than reinventing it each year.

Connection & belonging 20

Values about the people around you: being close, being part of something and being known.

Love: You show up for the people you love in ways they can actually feel.
Family: You arrange work and plans around the needs of your family first.
Friendship: You stay in touch over years and turn up when a friend is struggling.
Belonging: You seek out groups where you are known and invest in staying part of them.
Community: You give time to your street, mosque, church, club or town without being asked.
Intimacy: You let a few people see your fears and doubts, not just your achievements.
Companionship: You prefer doing ordinary things alongside someone to doing them alone.
Partnership: You make big decisions jointly and share both the credit and the load.
Connection: You ask the second question and remember the answer next time.
Acceptance: You let people be who they are without pressing them to change.
Teamwork: You care more about the team’s result than about your own visible part in it.
Cooperation: You look for the arrangement that works for everyone, not just for you.
Trust: You give people the benefit of the doubt until they give you a reason not to.
Openness: You share what you think and feel rather than keeping people guessing.
Affection: You express warmth readily through words, time and physical presence.
Togetherness: You protect shared meals, rituals and time as non-negotiable.
Heritage: You keep your language, stories and roots alive in how you live.
Inclusion: You notice who is left out of the room and bring them in.
Harmony: You smooth tensions early and avoid conflict that is not worth the damage.
Communication: You say what you need clearly and check that you were understood.

Care & contribution 20

Values about what you give: to people, to causes and to whatever outlasts you.

Compassion: You move towards someone’s suffering instead of looking away from it.
Kindness: You do small, unasked-for things that make another person’s day easier.
Generosity: You give time, money or credit freely and do not keep score.
Service: You measure a good day by how useful you were to someone else.
Contribution: You want your work to leave something better than you found it.
Helpfulness: You notice when someone is stuck and offer a hand before they ask.
Empathy: You try to feel the situation from inside the other person’s shoes.
Charity: You set aside a regular share of what you earn for people in need.
Patience: You let people learn at their own pace without showing your frustration.
Forgiveness: You let go of a grievance rather than carrying it into every future meeting.
Gentleness: You deliver hard news softly and handle vulnerable people with care.
Hospitality: You open your home and table easily and make guests feel expected.
Mentorship: You spend time developing people who could one day overtake you.
Stewardship: You look after shared resources as if the next generation is watching.
Sustainability: You change habits and purchases to reduce harm to the environment.
Advocacy: You use your voice and position for people who have less of either.
Equality: You push for the same opportunities and standards for everyone involved.
Selflessness: You put others’ needs ahead of your own comfort without making a show of it.
Nurturing: You create conditions where people, plants or projects can grow steadily.
Consideration: You think about how your choices land on others before you make them.

Growth & learning 19

Values about understanding more, seeing more clearly and becoming more capable over time.

Growth: You choose situations that stretch you, even when they are uncomfortable.
Learning: You are always partway through a book, course or skill you have chosen.
Curiosity: You ask “why” and “how” until you genuinely understand how something works.
Knowledge: You check sources and keep notes so that what you know is reliable.
Wisdom: You consider long-term consequences and the people affected before you act.
Self-improvement: You review your own habits regularly and work on the weakest one.
Open-mindedness: You change your view when the evidence is better than your current opinion.
Reflection: You make time to think back on what happened and why it happened.
Self-awareness: You can name your patterns, triggers and blind spots without getting defensive.
Education: You invest money and time in formal learning, for yourself and others.
Understanding: You try to grasp why people believe what they do before judging them.
Insight: You look beneath the obvious explanation for the pattern that actually drives things.
Adaptability: You learn new tools and ways of working quickly when the old ones stop working.
Change: You welcome a fresh start and get restless when nothing is moving.
Rationality: You separate facts from feelings when you are making an important decision.
Truth: You follow the evidence even when it leads somewhere you would rather not go.
Rigour: You test your own conclusions harder than anyone else would test them.
Coachability: You ask for feedback and act on it instead of explaining it away.
Exploration: You wander off the planned route to see what is down the side street.

Creativity & expression 18

Values about making things, seeing differently and putting something of yourself into the world.

Creativity: You regularly make something new, whether a meal, a product or a plan.
Imagination: You picture possibilities in detail before there is any evidence for them.
Innovation: You look for a better way to do a familiar job and then try it.
Originality: You avoid copying and work to find an approach that is recognisably yours.
Self-expression: You let your opinions, style and feelings show in what you say and make.
Beauty: You notice and seek out beautiful things, and arrange your space with care.
Artistry: You treat ordinary work as a craft and care how the finished thing feels.
Craftsmanship: You spend the extra hour on details most people will never notice.
Vision: You can describe clearly where things could be in five years and why.
Experimentation: You try small versions of an idea quickly to see what happens.
Storytelling: You explain ideas through stories so people remember them and act on them.
Ingenuity: You solve problems cleverly with whatever happens to be to hand.
Inspiration: You seek out people, places and work that make you want to create.
Resourcefulness: You find a way through when the budget, time or tools run short.
Wonder: You still stop to marvel at things other people have stopped noticing.
Elegance: You prefer the simple, clean solution over the complicated one that also works.
Style: You make deliberate choices about how you look, speak and present your work.
Boldness: You put unfinished ideas in front of people and accept the risk of failing.

Enjoyment & vitality 22

Values about feeling alive: health, energy, pleasure and the experiences that make a life full.

Health: You protect sleep, food and movement even when work is pressing hard.
Fitness: You train consistently and treat your body’s capability as worth maintaining.
Energy: You notice what drains you and organise your days to stay charged.
Rest: You take proper breaks and holidays without feeling guilty about them.
Balance: You keep work from swallowing the time you need for family, health and rest.
Fun: You build lightness into ordinary days instead of saving it for the weekend.
Joy: You let yourself feel good about small things and say so out loud.
Happiness: You make choices based on how they will feel to live with day to day.
Pleasure: You make room for good food, music and comfort without apologising for it.
Adventure: You go somewhere unfamiliar or try something untested whenever you can.
Excitement: You seek out situations where your heart rate goes up a little.
Humour: You find what is funny in hard situations and use it to ease tension.
Play: You do things purely for the enjoyment of doing them, with no goal attached.
Leisure: You guard unstructured time and spend it however you feel like.
Travel: You spend money on seeing new places rather than on owning more things.
Enthusiasm: You throw yourself into what you are doing and it shows to others.
Optimism: You expect things to work out and look for the opportunity in setbacks.
Celebration: You mark birthdays, wins and milestones properly rather than rushing past them.
Nature: You get outdoors regularly and feel the difference when you have not.
Risk-taking: You accept real uncertainty for the chance of a much better outcome.
Passion: You work on what you care about with an intensity others find hard to match.
Novelty: You try the new restaurant, tool or idea rather than the familiar one.

Influence & leadership 18

Values about shaping outcomes, directing others and being seen to matter.

Leadership: You take charge when a group is drifting and accept the blame if it goes wrong.
Influence: You work to shape decisions even when you do not hold the final vote.
Power: You seek positions where your decisions directly change what happens.
Recognition: You want your contribution seen and named, and you notice when it is not.
Status: You care about titles, rank and how your position compares with your peers.
Authority: You want the right to make the final call and to have it respected.
Decisiveness: You make the call with the information available rather than waiting for certainty.
Persuasion: You enjoy bringing sceptical people round to your point of view.
Reputation: You weigh how a choice will look to people whose opinion you value.
Assertiveness: You state your needs and limits plainly without aggression or apology.
Strategy: You think several moves ahead and plan the sequence before acting.
Empowerment: You hand real decisions to others and back them when they make them.
Visibility: You put yourself and your work in front of the people who matter.
Impact: You choose work by the size of the difference it will make.
Control: You prefer to hold the key decisions yourself rather than leave them to chance.
Advancement: You plan your next role and actively pursue the steps to reach it.
Diplomacy: You handle sensitive conversations so that everyone keeps their dignity.
Confidence: You act on your own judgement without needing constant reassurance.

Faith, meaning & spirit 19

Values about what life is for and your relationship to something larger than yourself.

Faith: You let your belief in God guide your decisions, including the costly ones.
Spirituality: You make regular time for practices that connect you to something beyond yourself.
Purpose: You can say in one sentence what you are here to do and organise around it.
Meaning: You turn down well-paid work that feels empty in favour of work that matters.
Gratitude: You notice and name what is good, including what others did to make it possible.
Peace: You avoid drama and work to keep a calm mind and a calm home.
Devotion: You keep your prayers, practices and commitments faithfully, day after day.
Presence: You give whoever is in front of you your full attention, phone away.
Mindfulness: You notice your thoughts and reactions as they arise instead of being swept along.
Contentment: You appreciate what you already have rather than constantly chasing more.
Serenity: You stay steady when things go wrong around you and help others settle.
Legacy: You make choices with an eye on what will remain after you are gone.
Transcendence: You seek experiences that take you beyond your own small concerns.
Hope: You keep working towards a better outcome when the evidence is still thin.
Reverence: You treat sacred things, places and people with visible care and respect.
Surrender: You do your part fully, then accept the outcome you cannot control.
Conscience: You listen to the quiet inner sense of right and wrong, and act on it.
Ritual: You keep regular observances that mark time and give your days a shape.
Unity: You look for what joins people rather than what divides them.

Order & excellence 19

Values about doing things properly: structure, standards and work that holds up under inspection.

Excellence: You will not hand over work that you know could be meaningfully better.
Quality: You would rather deliver less, later, than deliver something that falls apart.
Discipline: You do what you planned to do whether or not you feel like it today.
Order: You keep your space, files and finances arranged so you can find anything.
Organisation: You run lists, calendars and systems so that nothing important slips.
Precision: You check figures and wording because small errors matter to you.
Efficiency: You cut out unnecessary steps and get the same result with less effort.
Structure: You set clear roles, deadlines and processes before starting a project.
Planning: You map out the steps and the risks before committing time and money.
Thoroughness: You finish the last ten per cent that most people leave undone.
Accuracy: You correct the record, including your own mistakes, as soon as you notice them.
Punctuality: You arrive early and treat other people’s time as seriously as your own.
Cleanliness: You keep your surroundings and belongings clean, and notice quickly when they are not.
Simplicity: You remove clutter, commitments and complications until only the essentials remain.
Clarity: You make sure everyone knows exactly what was decided and who does what.
Professionalism: You keep your standards and composure whatever your mood or the client’s.
Diligence: You do the careful, routine checking that others treat as optional.
Self-control: You pause before reacting and choose your response when you are provoked.
Moderation: You avoid extremes and keep habits, spending and opinions within sensible bounds.

Core values examples: stated versus operational

The most revealing core values examples are not lists of words but cases where what someone says and what they do point in different directions. The illustrations below are composites of patterns that come up repeatedly, not real individuals.

Stated values compared with the values that showed up in behaviour
What the person says	What they actually did	The operational value
“Family is my number one value.”	Took a promotion that meant three nights a week away, after saying it was for the family’s sake.	Financial security, with family as the justification for it
“I value freedom above everything.”	Stayed eight years in a salaried role they found stifling rather than risk an unpredictable income.	Security ranks above freedom when the two collide
“Honesty matters most to me.”	Softened bad news to the team so far that nobody understood the project was failing.	Harmony ranks above candour, at least at work
“I want to keep growing.”	Turned down two stretch roles in a year because the current job was comfortable and well regarded.	Competence and status: being good at something known

None of these people are lying. Each of them holds the stated value sincerely. It simply sits lower in the hierarchy than they assume, so when it meets a higher value, it loses. That is why the hierarchy matters more than the list: two people with identical lists can make opposite decisions because their lists are ranked differently.

An example of a values conflict in one decision

A manager deciding whether to report a colleague’s mistake

Loyalty says: “He has covered for me before. Deal with it quietly.”

Integrity says: “The client was charged for work that wasn’t done.”

Security says: “If this comes out later and I knew, it’s my job too.”

What the manager does next shows which of the three is actually at the top in this context.

How to find your core values

Lists help you name values; questions help you find them. Ask about one context at a time, write down the exact words that come back, and keep asking “And what else?” until the answers run dry — in my experience, often after six to ten. The later answers, and the values that appear when you ask about frustration rather than satisfaction, are usually the more revealing ones.

“What’s important to you about your work?” followed by “And what else?”
“Think of a time you felt like walking away. What was missing, or being violated?”
“If you had [value A] but not [value B], would you still be satisfied? And the reverse?”

The full question sequence, how to handle away-from answers such as “not being micromanaged”, and a worked career example are in how to elicit values.

Why your values conflict

Values conflict because they compete for the same limited resources — time, money, attention and risk — and a decision eventually forces a trade. When two values sit close together near the top, or when two people rank the same values in a different order, the same tension returns in every related choice. The values framework explains how that hierarchy drives behaviour and how a values conflict shows up in practice.

Map your own values with the free tools

Two free instruments on this site turn the steps above into something you can complete in one sitting. The Values Inventory helps you name and rank the values that matter in a chosen context. The Values Wheel then shows how well each of your top values is currently being met, which is often where the explanation for a nagging dissatisfaction turns up.

If you want the thinking behind the method, the values framework explains why hierarchy drives behaviour. Values sit close to beliefs and decision patterns, and for work on a team or leadership group, see work with me.

Try it on yourself

Free instruments for this note

Free exercise · Interactive wheel · choose 6–8 values · ~6 min

Values Wheel

Choose the six to eight values that matter most, rate how fully you are living each one right now, and see on one wheel where your life and your values have drifted apart.

Open it

Free assessment · 30 statements · ~6 min

Values Inventory

What you say matters and what actually wins under pressure are often different. This ranks the six value orientations that drive your choices.

Open it

FAQ

Questions people ask

How many core values should you have?

Most people find that three to five values genuinely drive their decisions in any one context. You may recognise twenty, but beyond five or six the ranking becomes guesswork and the list stops guiding choices. A short hierarchy you can name from memory is more useful than a long list you have to look up.

What are the 5 core values?

There is no universal set of five core values. The five that appear most often in personal lists are honesty, family, respect, integrity and growth, but those are popular words rather than a standard. Your five are the ones that win when they conflict with other things you care about, and they will differ from anyone else’s.

What is the difference between values and beliefs?

A value is what matters to you: freedom, security, loyalty. A belief is what you hold to be true about how the world works: for example, that hard work is always rewarded. Beliefs often explain how you try to honour a value. Two people can share a value and hold very different beliefs about how to achieve it.

Can core values change?

Yes, though usually slowly. Within a context, the order tends to be fairly stable for years in the research literature (for example Shalom Schwartz’s work on basic human values). It shifts with major events such as becoming a parent, a serious illness, losing a job or reaching a goal you chased for a long time. Often the words stay the same and their ranking changes, which is easy to miss without re-checking.

What are examples of core values at work?

Common examples at work include accountability, excellence, autonomy, recognition, teamwork, security and impact. They show up in behaviour: someone who values autonomy bristles at close supervision, while someone who values recognition notices immediately when their contribution goes unmentioned. The order matters more than the words, because it predicts which trade-offs a person will accept.

How do I find my core values quickly?

Pick one context, shortlist values from a list, then test each against a real decision where honouring it cost you something. Keep only the ones that pass, and rank them in pairs by asking which you would protect if you could keep only one. The free Values Inventory on this site walks through the same steps.

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