Yet few people have a detailed set of well-defined values sitting around in their brain, waiting to guide their actions. “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone,” as the song goes. Our values—the things that are most important to us, like work, family, friendship, creativity and so on—are open to interpretation. But when we confront challenges, getting more specific about what we really value lets us know what’s at stake in our choices. As we think about the year ahead, five strategies can help us figure out what matters most to us.

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