Values & Balance Planning Toolkit

Month 11 toolkit. Paired with Understanding Athletic Identity and Applying Balanced Identity in LGFA.

Three tools.

Tool 1: The Values Exercise

When to use: once. Then revisit every 6 months.

How to do it:

Step 1: from the list below (or add your own), circle the 10 values that feel MOST important to you right now.

Achievement, adventure, authenticity, autonomy, balance, beauty, belonging, challenge, community, compassion, courage, creativity, curiosity, discipline, faith, family, financial security, freedom, friendship, fun, growth, health, honesty, humour, justice, kindness, knowledge, leadership, learning, love, loyalty, mastery, nature, openness, peace, performance, recognition, respect, responsibility, safety, service, spirituality, stability, status, success, trust, wisdom.

Step 2: narrow the 10 down to 5.

Step 3: narrow the 5 down to your top 3.

Step 4: for each of your top 3, write one sentence about what living that value looks like in your life right now. NOT in sport specifically. In your life.

Why it works: values clarification is the foundation of acceptance and commitment therapy work. Athletes who have a clear sense of what they value beyond performance are more resilient through setbacks, injury, and retirement (Brewer et al., 1993, and follow-up research).

Tool 2: The Life Domain Audit

When to use: quarterly.

How to do it:

Rate each of the following from 1-10, where 1 means “totally neglected” and 10 means “thriving”:

Physical health (sleep, fuel, recovery, not just training)
Mental health
Relationships with family
Relationships with close friends (especially outside the squad)
Romantic partnership (if applicable)
Work or career or study
Hobbies and creativity outside sport
Faith or spiritual life (if applicable)
Community contribution
Financial wellbeing
Sport / Gaelic football
Rest and downtime

Notice the patterns. Which are highest? Which are lowest?

Then ask: are the lowest ones genuinely de-prioritised right now (e.g. it’s championship season and you’ve consciously pulled back from social life) OR are they being neglected without you having decided to neglect them?

The first is fine. The second is what we want to catch.

Why it works: without explicit measurement, life domains drift. The audit makes the drift visible so you can choose what to address.

Tool 3: The Weekly Anchor Structure

When to use: weekly planning, especially during the season.

How to do it:

Block out non-negotiable time for at least:

Sport: sessions, gym, recovery.
One non-sport relationship: a call, a coffee, a meal. Doesn’t have to be long.
One non-sport activity: something you do for you. Reading, walking, creative work.
Proper rest: at least one day in the week that’s not sport AND not work.

This isn’t about adding more to a packed week. It’s about making sure the non-sport stuff doesn’t get dropped completely under pressure from sport stuff.

If you can’t fit even minimal versions of these in, your week is overloaded. That’s a different problem (we covered it in Month 9: Boundaries).

Why it works: without intentional blocking, the highest-priority domain (usually sport) crowds out everything else. The weekly anchor protects a minimum baseline in the other domains, which prevents the gradual narrowing of life that high-AIMS athletes experience.

Putting it together

Once: do the Values Exercise. Write your top 3 somewhere you’ll see them (notes app, journal, fridge).

Quarterly: do the Life Domain Audit. Notice patterns. Adjust.

Weekly: build the Weekly Anchor Structure. Even when championship is loud, protect baseline in other domains.

This is light-touch work. The point isn’t to be perfect across all life domains. It’s to not let the sport quietly take everything.

A note on what this is NOT

This is not anti-sport.

Some of the strongest athletes I know are deeply committed to their sport. They train hard, they recover seriously, they care intensely about how the squad is doing.

They also have other parts of themselves alive. That’s not a tradeoff against athletic commitment. It’s actually what makes long careers possible.

You can be all-in on the sport AND a whole person. The two go together.

References

Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L., & Linder, D. E. (1993). Athletic identity. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 24, 237-254.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2011). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Wylleman, P., & Lavallee, D. (2004). A developmental perspective on transitions faced by athletes. In M. Weiss (Ed.), Developmental sport and exercise psychology: A lifespan perspective.