Personal Values Test

A personal values test shows what you care about most when you have to choose. Most people say they value family, freedom, success and kindness. Values only become visible when two of them pull in different directions: the promotion that means moving away, the safe job against the risky idea, the family tradition you have quietly outgrown.

This test asks you to rate how important thirty things are to you, such as "making my own decisions about my life", "having a stable, secure job" or "keeping up the traditions I grew up with". From those answers it ranks ten values and names your top three.

It is built on the ten basic human values model used in values research, with our own wording for everyday life.

Your top three come from these ten. Each one is a possible result.

• Self-direction: freedom to think for yourself, make your own decisions and choose your own path.
• Stimulation: excitement, novelty and adventure. A life with stories in it.
• Hedonism: pleasure and enjoyment. Good food, good company and time to savour them.
• Achievement: success, ambition and having your abilities recognised.
• Power: influence, wealth and being the one who makes the call.
• Security: safety and stability, at home, at work and in society.
• Conformity: doing the right thing by others, following the rules and not letting people down.
• Tradition: respect for the customs of your family, culture or faith, and a certain modesty.
• Benevolence: loyalty and care for the people close to you. Being someone others can rely on.
• Universalism: fairness for everyone, including strangers, and care for the natural world.

All ten are good things. The question is which ones win when they compete.

The ten values sit around a circle, and the values opposite each other pull in opposite directions. That is why some combinations feel easy and others feel like an argument with yourself.

Self-direction and stimulation sit across from security, conformity and tradition: change and independence on one side, stability and continuity on the other. Achievement and power sit across from universalism and benevolence: getting ahead on one side, looking after others on the other.

Values that sit next to each other tend to travel together. If your top three are neighbours, your priorities are clear and consistent. If they come from opposite sides of the circle, you probably recognise the tension, such as wanting adventure and a secure base, and your result helps you name it.

We use our own proprietary structure: three items for each of the ten values, thirty in all, each rated on how important it is to you. Each value gets an average score.

Then we centre the scores on your own average. Most people rate nearly everything as important, which would leave a ten-way tie. Centring compares each value with your personal baseline, so even if you mark everything essential, your top three are the ones you rated above your own norm. That gives you a real order, not a list of good intentions.

You find your core values by looking at your choices, not your intentions. Everyone says honesty and family matter. What you do when they cost you something tells you how much.

Three questions get you most of the way there.

• When were you proudest? Think of a moment you still feel good about. The value it honoured is probably near the top of your list.
• When were you angriest? Strong anger usually means a value was trampled: fairness ignored, freedom taken away, loyalty broken.
• What would you refuse to do for money? The line you would not cross shows which value outranks power and achievement for you.

This test does the same job in a more structured way. Rating thirty specific items, then comparing each value against your own average, surfaces the priorities that hold steady across many small choices, which are often different from the ones you would name off the top of your head.

Use your top three as a test for decisions. When you are torn between two options, ask which one serves your top values better. The answer is usually clearer than the pros and cons list.

They also explain friction. If security is your top value and a partner's is stimulation, the argument about booking the holiday early is not really about the holiday. If your top value is self-direction and your job has you following a script all day, that restlessness has a name.

Try writing down one thing you did last week that honoured each of your top three, and one thing that went against them. The gaps are where small changes make the biggest difference.

Share your top three with a partner or close friend and ask for theirs. You will probably find one value in common and one that surprises you. The shared one is the foundation of the relationship. The surprising one explains the decisions of theirs you never quite understood.

Your values are stable but not frozen. They shift slowly with life stage: security and benevolence often rise when people have children or care for parents, and stimulation often fades a little as people settle.

Big events can reorder them faster. A health scare, a move abroad or a new job can push one value up the list overnight. Taking the test again after a turning point shows you what has moved, and what has stayed put through it all.