What Are Values? Principles That Guide Action and Display Nature

What are Values?

Most people don’t wake up thinking about their values. They notice them indirectly, when something feels slightly misaligned. When a choice looks right on paper but leaves a faint sense of resistance. When success arrives, yet doesn’t land the way it was expected to.

Values are often mistaken for opinions, preferences, or moral slogans. Something you declare and then defend. But in everyday life, their presence or absence is felt in our nervous system and in our essence. It shows up in how decisions are made under pressure, in what gets sacrificed first, and in what you refuse to trade away even when it would be easier to do so.

When values are unclear, life doesn’t usually fall apart. It keeps moving. But the movement starts to feel reactive rather than deliberate. You respond to demands, expectations, and incentives without a steady internal reference point. Over time, this can create a low-level tension. Not dramatic enough to name, but persistent enough to be tiring.

This is often where the question shifts from what should I do to what actually matters here. And that question brings us closer to what values are.

How Values Are Defined Today

According to the American Psychological Association, a value is defined as:

• A moral, social, or aesthetic principle accepted by an individual or society as a guide to what is good, desirable, or important

• The worth, usefulness, or importance attached to something.

https://dictionary.apa.org/value

Read plainly, this means values are not abstract ideals floating above daily life. They are the standards you use, often implicitly, to decide what deserves your time, energy, and care.

This definition emphasizes:

• Values as guides for judgment, especially when no option is perfect
  
• Importance as something we assign through action, not something that exists automatically
  
• The connection between inner standards and outward behavior
  

It does not promise comfort, success, or certainty. And when values are misunderstood as goals to achieve rather than principles to act from, they can quietly turn into another source of self-pressure.

Why Values Matter Today

Modern life offers many substitutes for values. Busyness, productivity, visibility, comparison. These can resemble direction, but often function as short-term responses to external pressure.

When values are unclear, behavior is shaped by what is urgent or rewarded rather than by what is considered important. Decisions become efficient but not necessarily coherent. People stay active, yet feel internally scattered.

The cost of this is rarely obvious at first. It shows up as difficulty prioritizing, a sense of being pulled in different directions, or the feeling that effort keeps increasing while satisfaction does not. What is missing is not drive, but a stable reference point for choosing how to act across changing circumstances.

Values provide that reference point without demanding constant explanation or justification.

Connecting Values to Stoic Philosophy

Stoic philosophy treats values as something revealed through conduct, not declared in advance. For the Stoics, what matters is not what you say you value, but what consistently governs your choices.

Epictetus often reminded his students that character is visible in how we respond to what is not up to us. Marcus Aurelius repeatedly returned to the idea of acting according to one’s role and nature, regardless of recognition or result. In both cases, values are shown in restraint, consistency, and attention to what is appropriate in the moment.

Stoicism does not add new values to your life. It gives language to an intuition many people already have. That acting with integrity feels steadier than acting for approval. That coherence matters more than control.

From this perspective, values are not aspirations. They are an expression of our internal nature within the Universal Nature that we are part of.

How to Live Your Values

Values are lived in ordinary moments. In how you speak when it would be easier to avoid discomfort. Or how you act when outcomes are uncertain. In returning attention to the role you are currently in, and doing that well, without needing it to lead somewhere else.

They are not demonstrated through intensity, but through consistency.

Key Dimensions of Values

• Orientation
  Values point toward how to act, not what to achieve, especially when situations are unclear.
  
• Importance
  They reflect what you treat as worth your time and energy, regardless of external reward.
  
• Constraint
  Values limit certain choices, which is why they often feel demanding rather than liberating.
  
• Expression through action
  They become visible through repeated behavior, not through stated beliefs.
  

Common Misunderstandings About Values

One common misunderstanding is that values should simplify life. This is appealing because it promises relief from doubt. In reality, values often narrow options and increase responsibility rather than remove it.

Another is treating values as part of identity presentation. When values are used to signal who we are rather than guide how we act, they quietly become performative. The focus shifts from alignment to appearance, adding pressure rather than steadiness.

Seen clearly, values are not about being impressive. They are about being internally consistent over time.

Practical Ways to Work With Values

• Notice quiet resistance, moments where actions feel efficient but internally misaligned often point to a value being overridden.
  
• Pay attention to trade-offs; what you are willing or unwilling to sacrifice reveals values more clearly than reflection alone.
  
• Return to roles, acting well within your current role, often clarifies values without needing abstraction.
  
• Use Stoic reflection, practices described in our Stoic practices guide and Inner Life terms help keep values grounded in daily conduct.
  

FAQ

What are values in everyday life?
Values are the principles you treat as important when choosing how to act in ordinary situations.

What is the definition of values in psychology?
In psychology, values are principles that guide judgments about what is good, desirable, or important, and the worth assigned to things.

How to live values without turning them into pressure?
Values are lived by acting consistently with what matters, without needing certainty or external validation.

Conclusion

Values are not destinations to reach or standards to measure yourself against. They are a steady orientation that shapes how you move through daily life. When lived quietly and consistently, they reduce inner friction rather than eliminate uncertainty. What matters is not intensity, but repetition. Over time, values show themselves not through effort, but through the ease of acting without contradiction.

Want to explore more Stoic practices?

Book a free consultation with one of our Stoic Coaches or learn about more Inner Life terms. You can also listen to The Via Stoica Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or watch it on YouTube.

Author Bio
Benny Voncken is the co-founder of Via Stoica, where he helps people apply Stoic philosophy to modern life. He is a Stoic coach, writer, and podcast host of The Via Stoica Podcast. With almost a decade of teaching experience and daily Stoic practice, Benny creates resources, workshops, and reflections that make ancient wisdom practical today.