How to Actually Use the Brene Brown Identifying Core Values Worksheet
The Brene Brown Identifying Core Values Worksheet is a guided exercise that asks you to narrow down a long list of possible values into a small set of non-negotiable principles that actually drive your decisions. Most people skip straight to picking values from a list without doing the harder work underneath it. That usually means they end up with a set of values they could recite at a dinner party but can't defend when something conflicts with them. The worksheet is structured to force that conflict into the open before you commit to anything. The typical worksheet follows a funnel process. You start with a broad list of around fifty values like integrity, courage, family, freedom, achievement, creativity, and so on. You eliminate items in rounds until you are left with three to five. The elimination rounds are the part people rush through. Each round usually asks you to pick which values you would least want someone to criticize you for violating, or which values you would keep if you had to choose under pressure. That second question is the one that matters most. I ran through this exercise with a client who was managing a product team and needed to clarify decision-making criteria. She landed on "quality" and "innovation" as her top two. When I pressed her on what happens when those two collide in a sprint, she couldn't answer. We went back and she realized she was using the worksheet as a way to sound good rather than to find out what she would actually sacrifice for. The workaround was simple. I had her rate each value on a five-point scale where five meant she would walk away from a career opportunity rather than violate it. Two values scored a five. Everything else scored a three or below. That gave her a real hierarchy instead of a flattering group photo.
Step-by-step process
You can find the original worksheet on Brene Brown's website or through various published versions that reproduce the same funnel structure. Here is how I work through it now. Step one: Print or copy the full value list. Do not start with a shortened version. The longer the initial list, the more meaningful the eliminations become. A list of twelve values compresses the exercise into guessing. A list of forty or more forces real distinctions. Step two: First cut. Cross out values that feel nice but do not actually guide behavior. These are the aspirational values. People usually keep their aspirational values and discard their operational values. Flip that. If you have ever chosen something other than a value when it mattered, that value is aspirational, not core. Remove it.
Step three: Second cut. From what remains, remove values that are subordinate to another value on your list. For example, if "honesty" is on there and "integrity" is also on there, one of them is probably doing redundant work. Integrity already contains honesty. Keep the broader container and drop the narrower sibling. This is a common mistake. People think more values equals more depth. It does not. It equals vagueness. Step four: Conflict testing. Take the remaining values and pair them against each other. Write out a real situation where two of them pull in opposite directions. If you cannot produce a plausible scenario in thirty seconds, you are still at a list, not a value system. The worksheet should push you toward scenarios you have actually faced or could reasonably imagine facing within six months. Step five: Final selection. Pick between three and five. Not ten. The upper limit exists because a value only becomes useful as a decision filter when you can invoke it quickly under stress. Five is the practical ceiling for most people. More than five and you are cataloging preferences, not identifying commitments.
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Where the worksheet breaks down
The main failure mode is that the worksheet captures values at a single point in time. People write it down once and treat it as permanent. Values shift when your circumstances shift. A person who lists "security" as a core value while raising young children in an expensive housing market may genuinely need that value. Ten years later, with the same worksheet, they might land on "growth" instead. The tool is accurate for the moment you use it. It is not a life audit. Another failure mode shows up with corporate implementations. I worked with a leadership team that applied the worksheet to define organizational values. They ended up with a list that matched their industry standard values page almost exactly. Safety, collaboration, excellence, accountability. The exercise produced nothing they could not have guessed. The problem was not the worksheet. It was that they used it as a validation ritual rather than a discovery ritual. They entered with a shared assumption of what they wanted to find and the funnel was too soft to resist that pull. The workaround for group settings is to have each person complete the worksheet individually before any group discussion. Then compare the individual results. The overlap reveals actual shared values. The divergence reveals unspoken tensions. Skipping the individual step collapses the exercise into a committee document.
A note on downloadable versions
Brene Brown has made worksheets and guided exercises available on her official site. Several reputable sources also reproduce similar structures. When searching for a Brene Brown Identifying Core Values Worksheet, check that the source links back to brenebrown.com or to published material from Brown herself. The content is simple enough that many sites host near-identical copies, and some of those copies reorder or strip the conflict-testing steps that make the original useful. The structure matters more than the word choices. If you want the most reliable version, start with the exercises published directly through Brown's channels. If you are doing this for personal use, a basic PDF with the same elimination rounds and a blank section for writing your final three to five will work fine. The format does not add value beyond the process itself.
What to do after you finish
Write your final list somewhere visible. Not in a drawer. Not in a notes app buried under ten other tabs. A physical space you encounter daily. Then test it against the last three decisions you made under pressure. If your final values did not predict those decisions, you have either the wrong values or you were not actually living by them. Both are useful findings. One means you need to revise the worksheet. The other means you need to change behavior. The worksheet cannot tell you which one it is. You have to look at your recent actions to find out. Revisit the worksheet every twelve to eighteen months or whenever your circumstances change materially. A job loss, a promotion, a relocation, a new relationship, a health diagnosis. Any of those can shift what you actually prioritize versus what you thought you prioritized. The exercise takes about twenty minutes the first time and maybe ten minutes on a repeat run. That is cheap for having a working decision filter.
