Anticynical #4: Vocabulary for Values
Vocabulary for Values, Recommended Difficult Experience.
Hey there 👋,
Welcome to the fourth edition of Anticynical! To recap, in Anticynical #1, I introduced what being anticynical means to me. In Anticynical #2, I introduced the idea of environment design. Anticynical #3 introduced broken windows.
This week’s idea is a vocabulary for values.
Idea: Vocabulary for Values
In a nutshell:Â a richer vocabulary of values allows for a sharper introspection into and better alignment with what you care about.
One day, out of nowhere, a friend asked me: "What are your core values? What do you really care about?"
I was stumped. Not only did I not know what my values were, but it felt like I didn't even have the language to talk about core values.
I knew basic stuff like freedom, honesty, love, etc., but the basic stuff fell short in describing the nuanced inter-relations between values. A good analogy is how medical doctors need to learn various medical terms and labels. Without those terms, the ability to even think about diseases or other issues is severely limited.
So I created a "taxonomy" or framework of values for myself. This framework is continually evolving, and here is a snapshot from when I wrote this post.
Snapshot of my values framework
 Physical: health, vitality, fitness, longevity.
 Metaphysical: freedom, autonomy, wisdom, inner peace.
 Aesthetic: beauty, harmony, elegance.
 Relationships: compassion, connection, loyalty, trust, intimacy.
 Ethical: honesty, rationality, empathy, universalism, sustainability.
 Intellectual: curiosity, knowledge, learning, critical thinking.
 Experiential: novelty, adventure, exploration, fun.
 Practical: efficiency, productivity, effectiveness, optimization.
This framework itself is nothing special. You can make up your own list of values or borrow them from someone, at least to start with. But once you have this starting point available, you can apply an iterative process by which your values sharpen you, and you, in turn, sharpen your values. An example of such a process:
Identify which values are important to you and establish a (rough) priority or ranking.
Integrate and align with your priority of values.
Reflect on and update the values framework.
Repeat.
Each step in the above process can take days, weeks, or even months—and it usually is much fuzzier than the above clean three-step process.
This practice has increased my self-awareness and sense of fulfillment and has improved my decision-making. I highly recommend you give it a go.
Question: What difficult or painful experience would you recommend to everyone?
Or almost everyone; there are always exceptions.
A marathon? A triathlon? A month-long meditation retreat?
I'd love to hear from you…
Have you reflected on your values before? Were you surprised by some of the values that mattered to you?
What difficult or painful experience do you recommend?
Or anything else at all. Just hit reply.