Extract values from recurring conditions across 5+ peak…

When This Fires

• During deliberate values discovery work
• When you feel misaligned but can't articulate what you value — peak experience analysis reveals it
• When planning life changes and needing to know what conditions to optimize for
• Complements Audit your last seven days of behavior against stated… (behavioral audit) with the positive-experience approach to values

Common Failure Mode

Extracting from activities instead of conditions: "My peak experiences were camping, rock climbing, and sailing — I must value outdoor adventure!" Maybe — or maybe the recurring condition was "physical challenge with immediate concrete feedback" which also explains why you love cooking and home renovation. The activity-level extraction produces a narrow, potentially misleading values list.

The Protocol

(1) List 5+ peak experiences — moments of deep engagement, fulfillment, or flow. Include diverse activities: work, leisure, relationships, learning. (2) For each, write the conditions present: what was true about the situation? Were you autonomous or directed? Creating or consuming? Alone or in a group? Under pressure or relaxed? Solving or exploring? (3) Look for conditions that recur across 3+ experiences from different domains. These cross-domain recurring conditions are your values. (4) Name each value: "Autonomy in problem-solving," "Creative expression with tangible output," "Deep collaboration toward shared purpose." (5) Validate: does optimizing for these conditions reliably produce engagement? Test by deliberately seeking the conditions and observing whether engagement follows.