Value-based living
27 October 2025
Focus on acting in line with your values, not on achieving some external outcome. While of course we should have goals for some external outcome, actually achieving them is better approached as a ‘nice-to-have’, not the core objective. Instead, the real focus is to act in accordance with your values in every moment.
Why do this? Because outcome-based living always pushes ‘success’ to the future - to the achievement of some goal, whereas value-based living brings success to the now. And because achievements often hinge on things that you can’t control (what if you get unlucky, get hit by a bus, etc.), whereas your disposition of mind is entirely in your control.
Imagine being in your old age looking back on your life, would you prefer to be able to say: ‘I’m pleased I slogged away towards some external goal - every moment striving for the achievement’; or would you prefer to say ‘I’m pleased I made all my decisions with integrity, love, and diligence, with the external goal as my rough direction’.
Remember that life is now. This exact moment. It’s always ‘now’. Even as you read this, and I write this, this is life. It’s not some point in the future. Why encourage the idea that now is not enough, and that a future achievement is the condition on which you are allowed to be content?
Maybe being perfectly mindful with present-moment awareness is not possible, but at the very least, whenever you remember, pull attention towards a value-based viewpoint rather than an outcome-based viewpoint. Regarding the past, ask yourself: ‘did I act wisely given everything I knew?’ rather than ‘did I achieve the perfect outcome?’. Or regarding the future, say: ‘I will be courageous and kind’ rather than ‘I will solve the problem’.
This post is a gentle pushback against my own disposition to sometimes stress and struggle towards work goals. I find a value-focused outlook to be very helpful. As I understand it, it’s often used in evidence-based therapies such as CBT or ACT, and seems to me present in my favourite ancient philosophy, Stoicism.