Values Clarification (Towards vs Away Goals)
Name your real values, then audit whether your days move toward them or just flee bad feelings
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 76%
Drawn from the therapy tradition that Robertson traces back to Socrates, values clarification first has you do the work of identifying your core values, then confronts you with an audit: how much of yesterday did you actually spend on activities consistent with those values? The most common honest answer he hears is zero. The framework then draws two distinctions. First, meaningful activity versus merely pleasurable activity: chocolate, sex or a comedy give a warm glow but do not make you more fulfilled if the rest of your life feels pointless. Second, towards-goals versus away-goals: an away-goal is done to escape boredom, anxiety or other unpleasant feelings, while a towards-goal is pursued because you genuinely love the thing. A life built on away-goals stays hollow; reallocating time to towards-goals aligned with named values is what produces fulfilment.
Origin
Robertson roots the practice in Socrates's insistence that the meaning of life is to question and clarify one's values, carried into evidence-based cognitive therapy where values clarification and activity scheduling have been used since the 1970s.
Core principles
- 01If you do not know your values you cannot know what to do all day
- 02Meaningful activity, not merely pleasurable activity, sustains fulfilment
- 03Towards-goals pull you to what you love; away-goals only flee discomfort
- 04A life driven by avoidance is never truly satisfying
How to run it
- 1
Identify your core values
With deliberate effort, work out what you actually value in life. This is hard, reflective work most people never do.
Pro tip Expect it to take real effort; Robertson says it took him 31 years.
- 2
Audit your time honestly
Ask how much of yesterday, or the past week, you spent on anything consistent with those values. Answer truthfully even if it is zero.
Watch out The common honest answer is zero; do not flinch from it.
- 3
Separate pleasure from meaning
Distinguish activities that give a warm glow from those that leave you genuinely fulfilled. Pleasure alone does not build a meaningful life.
- 4
Sort towards-goals from away-goals
Label each activity: is it a towards-goal you pursue because you love it, or an away-goal you do only to escape an unpleasant feeling?
Pro tip Drinking, scrolling, or numbing out to avoid boredom are classic away-goals.
- 5
Reallocate toward your values
Cut avoidance behaviours and redirect that time into meaningful, value-consistent towards-goals, then put them into practice repeatedly.
In the wild
When Robertson helps clients identify their values and then asks how much time they spent the previous day doing anything consistent with those values, the most common answer is zero. Clients report spending zero minutes all week on anything they considered of any intrinsic value, instead filling the time with avoidance behaviours to escape boredom or anxiety. Naming that gap is what starts the shift toward value-driven action.
→ Confronting the zero forces a re-examination of how days are spent and prompts a reallocation toward meaningful activity.
Common mistakes
Chasing pleasure instead of meaning
Aaron Beck first assumed depressed people just needed more pleasurable activities; later evidence showed it is meaningful, value-consistent activity that actually helps.
Skipping the values work and going straight to action
Without first naming your real values, you have no way to judge what you should be doing all day, and you default to society's borrowed goals.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone who feels their days lack direction and wants to align daily action with what genuinely matters to them.
Not ideal for
People seeking a quick mood boost rather than a deeper reappraisal of how they spend their life.
From the transcript
“if you don't know what your real values are in life then how do you know what it is that you should be doing all…”
“it's not pleasurable activities that that help people with depression it's meaningful activities”
“they're sort of away from goals we're doing this in order to get away from unpleasant feelings whereas what you really want are towards goals”
From the episode
Stoicism: How To Think Like A Roman Emperor - Donald Robertson - #274
Donald Robertson