What are the Roots?
The Roots are what you stand on: the values that strengthen your growth and quietly shape your choices.
A value is a deep belief about what is important in life. It is tied to feeling: when you act on a value, it feels right, and when it is crossed, it bothers you. It goes with you everywhere: it is not about one situation, and it shows up at work, at home and with the people around you. It is a standard: you use it, often without noticing, to judge what is good, what is worth doing and what you respect. And values come in an order: when two of them pull apart, the one that matters more to you guides what you do.
A value is something that matters to you for its own sake, not a goal you finish. “Get promoted” is a goal; “growth” is a value.
Roots run deep, mostly out of sight, and strengthen the tree’s growth.
Why go deep here?
When you can name what you stand on, and see which value comes first when two of them pull apart, your choices become easier to read. Research suggests that goals that match a person’s own values are pursued with more energy. That is why, in our framework, the Roots come before any goal.
Four steps, from your values to what leads
- Identify. You pick your values from a list drawn from research, and choose the five that matter most.
- Test. Your five values meet in pairs, to see which one you choose when two of them pull apart.
- Live. You look at what you did in real life: a recent decision, and where your time, energy and money went.
- Result. You see what leads right now.
Two to three weeks later, a 5-minute follow-up looks at which value showed up in your choices.
This journal takes about 25 minutes, and you fill it in once. Answer as things really are for you. Nothing here grades you. You can leave anything blank and come back to it later.
A note of care. This journal is here to help you see what matters to you, not to judge your values. If something keeps pressing on you, or stays heavy for a long time, it may be a sign to seek support from a therapist or a specialist in inner work.
Tip: bookmark this page, or add it to your home screen, so you can come back to it easily.
Two parts, two buttons. Just below this box you will see two buttons. First round (burgundy) is where you start; it is already selected when you open the journal. Follow-up (gold) is only for two to three weeks later.
You are viewing a preview. To fill in the journal and save your answers, open this file in a web browser such as Chrome or Safari, or ask for the online link.
My values
Pick all that ring true for you.
Not in the list? Add your own: ______________________________________________
Where this list comes from: it was put together from research on basic human values, which describes ten kinds of values recognized across cultures, with a few words added for our local context. It is a starting point, not a test.
The values you tick appear here when the journal is open in a web browser.
1 ____________ 2 ____________ 3 ____________ 4 ____________ 5 ____________
Head to head
The Test. Choosing your values is one step. Seeing which one leads is another. When two values pull apart, one of them usually leads. This journal looks at that from two sides: what you choose in the pairs, and what you did in real life. The result is called “what leads right now”. It is not a ranking and not a verdict, and it can change with time and with the situation.
Your five values meet in pairs. For each pair: if you faced a situation where these two values came head to head, which one would you choose? Choose the one you would pick first. About five minutes.
The pairs appear here when the journal is open in a web browser.
Number your five values 1 to 5. For each pair, circle the one you would choose:
1 or 2 · 3 or 4 · 5 or 1 · 2 or 3 · 4 or 5 · 1 or 3 · 2 or 4 · 3 or 5 · 4 or 1 · 5 or 2
Count how many times you circled each number: 1 ___ 2 ___ 3 ___ 4 ___ 5 ___
A plain note. These pairs show what you say you would choose, and that can be shaped by what the people around you expect. That is why Step 3 looks at what you did in real life.
How my values shape my choices
Values also show in what you do. Here you look at two places: a recent decision, and where your time, energy and money go.
Example: “A friend needed me on the evening I had kept for my own project.”
→ If you chose “Another value”:
Example: “Most of my time went to work, my energy to my children, and my money to the house.”
Pick all that apply.
Your five values appear here when the journal is open in a web browser.
Write the values: ______________________________________________
→ If you chose “Another value”:
What leads right now
Here is what emerged from your two lenses: the values you instinctively ranked above others, and the ones that actually showed up in how you spent your time, energy and decisions.
Your result appears here when the journal is open in a web browser.
For each value, note: how many pairs did it win? Did my recent decision serve it? Did my time, energy and money serve it?
What leads right now: ______________________________________________
The value that leads is the one that tends to come first when your values pull apart. It does not make the others matter less. If the two sides point in different directions, that is a finding, not a verdict.
→ If you chose “Yes” or “A little”:
What this is for. You do not have to serve one value. Most of the time you serve several at once, and the one that weighs most can differ between your work and the rest of your life. Knowing your values helps you understand what drives your choices. It matters most in the moments when two of your values pull against each other: when you know what comes first for you there, you can choose clearly.
Example: “Family and Growth, when a new role would mean longer hours.”
What happens next
How to use what you wrote.
Your answers are saved on this device. You can close the journal at any time; when you open this same link again on the same device and browser, your answers will be there. They will not appear on another device or in a private window, and clearing your browser’s history removes them, so it is worth saving your journal as a PDF too.
In two to three weeks, open the Follow-up: it takes about 5 minutes. Before you start it, read your answers here once more. Until then, notice the moments when two of your values pull against each other, and which one you put first.
In the window that opens, choose “Save as PDF”.
What showed up in my choices
About 5 minutes. Read your first round once more before you start.
→ If you chose “Another value”:
If something resonated — or unsettled you — let's explore it together.
Book a free discovery call → or send Hanan a message.What backs this journal
The Roots Journal brings together well-tested research and long-standing practical wisdom.
Show the research and references
- What a value is. Our definition follows the main features of values described in research on basic human values: a value is tied to feeling, is wider than any one situation, serves as a standard, and is ordered by importance against other values. (Schwartz, 2012)
- Values and what we do. Values motivate behavior, but the link is partly hidden by what the people around us expect, and it is stronger for some values than for others. That is why this journal compares what you choose in the pairs with what you did in real life. (Bardi & Schwartz, 2003)
- Values and goals. Goals that match a person’s own values are pursued with more energy. (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999)
- The list of values. We put the list together from the ten basic values, and the examples given for each, in research on values across cultures, using everyday words. A few words were added for our local context, such as hospitality and honor. The wording is ours: it is not the research questionnaire, and it has not been tested as a measure. (Schwartz, 2012)
- Our own tools. The head-to-head pairs and “what leads right now” are our own working tools. They are a guided reflection, not validated measures, and the result is not a score.
- Our framework’s view. That the Roots come before any goal is our framework’s view.
Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and behavior: Strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(10), 1207–1220.
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1).
Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 482–497.
© 2026 Hanan Timraz · www.timraz.com. All rights reserved. You may print and use this journal for your own reflection. Please do not copy, adapt or share it without permission.