You say innovation is one of your values. But when you look at your actual choices, your habits, your career moves, you're not sure you mean it. You might be confusing what sounds good with what actually drives you.
Who This Is For
This is for someone who has written "innovation" on a values list, claimed it in a job interview, or felt it should matter to them, and now suspects they don't mean it. You're not broken. You're noticing a gap, and you want to know if innovation is actually your value or if you've inherited it, performed it, or mistaken it for something else entirely.
This is also for people in creative, technical, or entrepreneurial roles who feel pressure to prize innovation above other things. You wonder if your actual priorities are different. You're tired of pretending. You want clarity on what you actually value so you can make decisions that fit.
This is not for someone who is genuinely driven by innovation and wants to do more of it. You already know. This page is for doubt, not for execution. It's also not for people who are satisfied with their current self-understanding and not looking to revise it.
What You Will Discover
Once you understand your actual values and how they sit against each other, you will see why "innovation" felt right on paper but didn't stick in practice. Schwartz's framework of basic human values, tested across 80 countries and replicated thousands of times, reveals that values exist in a circular structure. Some values are adjacent and compatible, pulling you in the same direction. Other values are opposite and in tension, pulling you apart. Innovation might sit in a different zone than where your actual priorities live, and that's not a character flaw. That's information.
You will also stop making the same decisions based on what you think you should value. Instead, you will make career, project, and relationship choices based on what actually motivates you. This matters because misalignment between your stated values and your lived life creates constant friction. It eats energy. It produces choices you later regret. The alternative is knowing what you genuinely care about and designing your life around that, not around what sounded impressive.
Common Reasons People Wait
The first hesitation is that admitting you don't value innovation feels like admitting you're not creative or ambitious. It doesn't. Schwartz identified ten universal value types. "Innovation" is not one of them. What you might actually value is something more specific: self-direction (the desire to be your own authority), stimulation (variety and excitement), or achievement (success and competence). These are different from innovation. You can have achievement without innovation. You can have self-direction without innovation. And plenty of people have all three. The point is to know which one is actually yours so you stop performing the wrong value.
The second hesitation is that you worry this kind of clarity is for people who have it all figured out, and you're still in the messy middle. That's backward. People in the messy middle need this most. Once you know what you actually value, the mess starts organizing itself. You stop taking jobs that don't fit. You stop joining projects because they look good. You make fewer bad decisions because you have a filter now. Waiting for certainty is just delaying that filter.
The third hesitation is that you're afraid the answer will require you to change something. Maybe it will. But you're already living with the cost of not knowing. You're either performing a value that isn't yours, or you're avoiding making a decision because you haven't named what matters. Both of those have a price. At least this way you pay it intentionally instead of by drift.
The My Values assessment surfaces your actual values and ranks them, showing you where you're living them and where you're not.
Can my values change over time?
Yes. Schwartz's framework describes stable value types, but which values matter most to you can shift as your circumstances and priorities change. The point is to know what's true now, not to lock yourself into a static identity. If your values shift later, you run the assessment again.
What if I value innovation in some contexts but not others?
That's common. You might value innovation in your work as a product manager but not in how you design your personal life. The assessment captures what your highest priorities are overall. Context matters for how you live those values, but your core values tend to be consistent across domains.
Does everyone have to value innovation to succeed?
No. Some of the most successful people value tradition, stability, security, or community impact more than innovation. Success and satisfaction come from working within your actual values, not against them. Innovation is valuable in certain roles and industries, but it is not universal.
How do I know if I actually value innovation or just think I should?
Look at your actual choices when nothing is forced. When you had a choice of projects, which ones did you pick? When you could spend time however you wanted, what did you choose? What did you study because you genuinely wanted to, not because it looked good? Your values show up in what you choose when you have freedom to choose otherwise.