Below is a list of criteria by which you may evaluate others or yourself. For example you may disparage a person because he is dishonest or thinking highly of a person because she is moral or commands respect. [Note, this list is certainly not exhaustive, please add others that are important to you].

Sample List of Values

• Honesty - Consistently seeking and speaking the truth
• Morality - To do what is morally right.
• Spiritual - Acting in accord with spiritual or religious principles
• Respect - To be respected by self, and others,
• Compassion - Showing care and kindness for others
• Courage - Standing up for your convictions with determination
• Fairness - Good and bad outcomes distributed without favoritism or prejudice
• Industriousness - Putting forth efforts to achieve what is important to you
• Connectedness - Having useful and warm social connections
• Adventure - Willingness to participate in activities that involve risk
• Service - Doing good deeds that benefit others
• Aesthetic - Living beautifully [Using aesthetic appraisal criteria]
• Hedonic - Striving for pleasure or relief
• Obedience - Motivation to do as you are told
• Conforming - Motivation to fit in with external standards, or be part of a group

Actual Hierarchy of Motives

The first section of the The Values Clarification Worksheet is labeled, Actual Hierarchy of Motives. You can determine which motives are most important to you by observing how you use your time and energy. Considering the choices you make, the payoffs you chase, and the sacrifices you make to chase them, what do you deduce is most important to you, second most important, and third most important? Is a lot of your time and energy focused on earning money, pleasure seeking, cultivating friendships? List the three highest in order of importance under the heading: Actual Hierarchy of Motives.

Ideal Hierarchy of Motives

What objective is most worthy of your time and attention? What omission would you regret the most? Choose three that best represent your interests and principles  — the motivations that you want to guide your actions — and rank order them from the most important to the third most important. Write them out under the heading: Ideal Hierarchy of Motives.

Core Values

To identify your Core Values, consider the criteria you used to rank order the motives on your ideal hierarchy. What does your ranking say about your core values? Can you attribute the Hierarchy of Motives you composed to three or fewer appraisal criteria that reflect what you value as most important?

Please identify them in descending order of importance under the Core Values heading on the The Values Clarification Worksheet .

1. Declaration of Core Motivation

Review your Actual and Ideal Hierarchies carefully. One was created by your Abstract Processing System, the other by the cause-and-effect principles that influence the creature you inhabits.

You may use the single box to compose a statement of your Core Motivation. For example: "Fulfilling my responsibilities as a husband and a dad is more important to me than all the payoffs I get from drinking alcohol."

Alternatively you may specify your most important values and motives in the boxes provided.

2. These Are My Beliefs

In this section, write out specific statements that will remind you of your motivation to act in accord with your interests and principles. They can be stated as benefits of doing the right thing or as penalties for doing the wrong thing. [Research suggests that early in the change process, reminding the self of penalties of relapse are most influential. Later, once you start getting some of the payoffs of success, imagery of the benefits of following your path of greatest advantage become more influential].

• I want to be a positive role model for my children
• Using the incentive causes pain to my family and myself
• I will be able to get in touch with my true feelings if I don’t numb out by using the incentive
• I will never fulfill my hopes and dreams if I go back to using.
• My physical health will improve if I stay clean
• If I continue to use I will lose everything
• Exercising my will to resist temptation strengthens me
• I want a wife and family more than I want transient payoff of using the incentive.
• If I continue my addiction I will die without experiencing what I really want.

3. Draft of Your Decision

Decision is the critical moment in the exercises of will. Your Decision declares what you intend to do. For example, "I will be abstinent from cocaine." Once you make your decision, you must follow it without exception. So it is important that you think through and word your decision carefully. You are not quite at the point where you must declare your decision. This draft is an opportunity to brainstorm what decision would be best for you, and to try out different ways of wording it. During the Decision Stage you will make a formal declaration of your Decision.