By now, you’ve likely started identifying your core values by paying attention to the flare signals your emotions send. But once you’ve named them, a deeper question emerges: are these values actually good for you?

We can all agree that honesty beats deception and compassion trumps cruelty. But the line between a value that fuels growth and one that keeps you stuck isn’t always that clear. Here’s the essential test: A value is only “good” if it supports your psychological well-being.

Values and Happiness

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made a distinction between two kinds of happiness :

• Hedonia – The happiness that feels good. Pleasure, comfort, a cold drink on a hot day. It’s real, but fleeting—rooted in dopamine hits and short-term rewards that vanish as quickly as they arrive.
• Eudaimonia – The happiness that is good. Meaning, purpose, fulfilment and the quiet pride that comes after doing the hard thing. It’s the peace of living with integrity, even when it costs you something.

Modern psychology backs this up: long-term well-being depends far more on meaning than on momentary pleasure. Eudaimonia often means sacrificing a lower value in service of a higher one : choosing integrity over comfort, or long-term growth over instant gratification.

This doesn’t mean you should abandon pleasure. It means you get to decide the balance.

Ask yourself: What does my ideal blend of pleasure and meaning look like? What’s one short-term pleasure I could trade today for deeper satisfaction tomorrow?

The 6 Markers of a Healthy Value

Psychologist Carol Ryff identified six core dimensions of healthy, sustainable well-being. If a value helps you grow in these areas, it’s serving you. If it doesn’t, it may be quietly holding you back.

1. Autonomy – Do your values help you think for yourself, or just keep you chasing approval?
2. Environmental Mastery – Do they help you take charge of your circumstances, or leave you stuck and overwhelmed?
3. Personal Growth – Do they challenge you to evolve, or keep you comfortable and stagnant?
4. Positive Relationships – Do they make you better at real, mutual connection, or do they isolate and harden you?
5. Purpose in Life – Do they give you direction, or are you just floating through your days?
6. Self-Acceptance – Do they help you own who you are, or make you feel like you’re never enough?

A healthy value doesn’t just feel good temporarily. It makes you more grounded, resilient, and effective. A poor value can sound virtuous—like “perfectionism” or “always being strong”—but if it stops you from having hard conversations, taking risks, or accepting your limitations, it’s working against you.

Try this: Write down these six markers. Beside each, rank your current satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10. Be honest. This gives you a clear reading of where your lived values might be falling short.

The Value Hierarchy

You already have a value hierarchy—an internal ranking of what matters most, whether you realize it or not. But not all values are created equal.

Lower values tend to be externally dependent and emotionally reactive: always being right, never failing, looking good, avoiding discomfort, or chasing arbitrary success metrics. They depend on external factors you can’t fully control. They also tend to center primarily on the self. Things like personal health, freedom, or comfort matter deeply, but they become limiting when pursued in isolation.

Higher values are reality-based, socially constructive, and immediately within your control: responsibility, integrity, honesty, resilience. They’re timeless principles you can pursue in any context, not temporary achievements that fade. They serve a purpose beyond self-interest and connect you to something larger: easing the suffering of others, building community, or contributing to a cause that will outlast you.

Here’s the catch: we naturally default to lower values because they’re easier and more immediately rewarding. Choosing higher values requires conscious effort. In many ways, living well is the ongoing practice of sacrificing a lower value for a higher one.

The work isn’t about being perfect. It’s about closing the gap between the values you hold and the life you actually live.

This article was adapted from “Your Values Guide” by Mark Manson.