Certificate of Valued Living Bureau of Personality
Flat-lay scrapbook page on cream paper: a hand-drawn heart and compass, a wax-stamped card with a star seal, a grid calendar with one date circled, two blank speech-bubble stickers, a Polaroid of a potted succulent, a pressed leaf, and colorful washi tape and star stickers, with a mug and knit blanket at the edges.

Certificate of Valued Living

to be completed in your own hand

Processing time: 6 min Items: 20

No sign-up. Issued the same day.

This certificate is issued from a 20-item self-report test covering five everyday areas — close relationships, work, friends and rest, and a sense of meaning — and returns a classification of how closely the bearer’s recent days match what’s already named as mattering, ready to view in about 6 minutes.

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A demanding week threatens to swallow the one evening set aside for a partner or family member.
No birthday, crisis, or plan is forcing contact with someone close this week.
A more appealing option competes with time already promised to someone close.
Other demands are piling up, and a close relationship is still owed real attention.
A task ahead carries no risk of criticism if it's done at just an average level.
The work in front of you has turned repetitive and mechanical for days.
An easier, more convenient option sits right next to a step toward a longer-term goal.
Nobody is likely to check the piece of work you're about to finish.
Nothing in particular is happening today, and a friend hasn't been contacted first in a while.
Other tasks are competing for the hour usually spent on rest or something fun.
Something else is asking for the time normally spent on sleep or basic upkeep.
The next stretch of downtime is on the calendar, waiting to be gotten through.
Nothing outside is requiring the personally meaningful practice you'd otherwise do today.
No one is asking for a contribution to something beyond your own immediate concerns.
A cause or practice called important out loud hasn't gotten any actual time lately.
The course, group, or invitation that first started this activity is no longer there.
Something that matters just hit a snag and stopped going smoothly.
Attention just got pulled toward replaying the past or rehearsing the future.
The day is ending, and you check for a private sense of having lived it well.
No motivation or payoff is showing up for something that still matters.

The certificate will be issued in this name. Leave it blank to issue it to the bearer.

About This Certificate

Self-reported alignment between what a person names as mattering and what their recent daily behavior actually reflects, across five everyday-life facets.

Test author Editorial Staff

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Attachments

Attachment 1. Methodology

This self-check looks at how closely a handful of everyday areas already reflect what a person names as mattering to them: friends and rest, work or study, close relationships, and whatever makes a stretch of days feel meaningful or worth contributing to. Beyond those four, it also takes a separate, standalone read on the everyday forces that aren't tied to any one of them — whatever tends to carry that match forward or knock it off course from day to day. It sits in the same research tradition as the importance-and-behavior approach used within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, without reproducing any specific published instrument built on that approach.

The twenty questions ask about a recent stretch of days, not a lifelong pattern, and the result reflects that stretch only — this kind of match between stated values and daily behavior is known to move up and down within the same person over time. Because it is a self-report, it reflects what a person notices about their own recent days, not an outside record of what actually happened. It's also worth being clear about what a lower number can't tell you: it can't distinguish between an area that has simply stopped mattering and one that still matters but keeps losing out in practice — both leave the exact same kind of gap on the page, with nothing here able to say which one is actually true.

This is a personal snapshot of a recent stretch, not a clinical or diagnostic measure.

Attachment 2. Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between knowing your values and actually living by them?

Naming what matters and acting on it day to day are two different questions. This self-check measures only the second one — how much of a recent stretch of days actually lines up with what's already been named as important, not what those values are.

What areas of life does this kind of check usually cover?

This kind of check usually spans four everyday corners of life: whatever makes daily life feel meaningful or gives back to something bigger, close relationships, friends together with rest and self-care, and work or study. On top of those four, it also takes a separate pass at the gap's own pattern — the everyday push and pull that widens or narrows it, wherever in life it happens to show up, rather than tying that pattern to any single area.

Does a low result mean an area doesn't matter, or that it just isn't being lived?

The result can't tell the two apart on its own. Both possibilities look identical in the gap between what's named as important and what actually happens, so a low reading is not a verdict on which one applies.

Can this be retaken later?

Yes. The result reflects a recent stretch of days, not a fixed reading, so taking it again after some time has passed is a reasonable way to see whether the gap has moved.

Is this a diagnosis or a clinical measure?

No. This is a self-reflection format, not a diagnosis or a clinical assessment of any kind, and it doesn't measure or replicate any single published clinical instrument.

Attachment 3. References
  1. Wilson, K. G., Sandoz, E. K., Kitchens, J., & Roberts, M. (2010). The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining and Measuring Valued Action within a Behavioral Framework. The Psychological Record, 60(2), 249–272. doi:10.1007/BF03395706
  2. Smout, M., Davies, M., Burns, N., & Christie, A. (2014). Development of the Valuing Questionnaire (VQ). Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 3(3), 164–172. doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2014.06.001
  3. Cotter, D. D. (2011). Psychometric Evaluation of the Valued Living Questionnaire: Comparing Distressed and Normative Samples. Doctoral dissertation, Western Michigan University.
  4. Sarrión, P., Cebolla, A., Santamaria-Rincon, M., Llinares-Monllor, C., Desdentado, L., & Baños, R. (2026). Advancing our understanding of valued living: An ecological momentary assessment of behavioral and experiential aspects of valued actions, well-being, and emotional distress. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 18(3), e70151. doi:10.1111/aphw.70151