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Values-Based Decision-Making Immersion - LIVE 2026

Design your life from the inside out. Identify what truly matters to you, and use it to make holistic decisions that create your desired future - one step, one action at a time.
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Prelaunch pricing ends February 28th 2026

Know Your Path. And How To Walk It

Are you struggling to make your vision for the future a reality?

Do you have trouble saying "no" to new opportunities or decisions?

Have you ever felt that you'd like to be on the same page with yourself, your partner, business colleagues, project stakeholders or land mates?

Values-Based Decision-Making helps you envision the future you want, clarify the values that can make that future a reality, filter decisions for their ability to add to your desired future, and help keep you accountable and track your progress.

If you’re looking to dive deep into understanding what you truly want in life, how to move towards it AND invest time into embodying your values in a way that will set you up for the future, this is the course for you.
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“Javan helped prevent me from potentially making a $50,000 business mistake in a mere 15 minute phone conversation - not from sharing his own opinion on the situation but from asking the right questions, that illuminated my own needs and weak links, making the decision obvious. I am so very thankful to have access to his guiding influence when needed.”

Zach Weiss - USA - Elemental Ecosystems & Water Stories - Values-Based Decision-Making Client

What You'll Walk Away With...

Self Knowledge

A personalized set of values to guide your life.

Better Decision Making

A process to clarify how to determine what’s a yes, what’s a no, and why.

Healthy Accountability

A system for checking in on, and monitoring, your life’s progress.

Full 'Stock Take'

An inventory of your life, and how to manage it better

Tools of Sovereignty

A comprehensive set of tools to set boundaries that actually stick.

Your Own Autonomy

As a truly regenerative design tool, VBDM sets you up for the long haul.
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If you ever wanted to feel like Merlin the Magician in the game of Life this class is the dress rehearsal! By far one of the best decisions I've ever made to sign up and spend a couple of hours a week with Javan and Tristan.

I looked forward to each and every class. Excellent facilitators, great content, amazing results in a gentle, fun, supportive environment.

Make the time to be there, and how you choose what you do with your time will be forever changed.
Shannon Maris - USA - Student - An Introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making

Unsure how to decide what's next?

Find your true north and make decisions that actually fit your life.
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13 Live Calls

Engagement with two skilled facilitators every other week.

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Recordings

Can't make one of the sessions? Recordings are available. 

Workbook

Video material and a workbook guide you through the process.

Community Learning

Learn from and with your peers.
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Not Another 'Life Hack'

It's learning to align your actions with your highest values.

We aren’t taught how to design our ideal life. Most often we adopt what everyone else is doing, or what we’re told to do, and find out the hard way that someone else’s dreams don’t fit us.

Values-Based Decision-Making helps you to design your life from the inside out. Working with the values of your ideal future as the standards you hold yourself to on a daily basis. 

You’ll learn how to stop reacting on autopilot and start making grounded choices - based on the clarity of your values, not pressure from outside influences.

Used by over 2,000 students over the course of 15 years, this approach has helped people across industries shift from overwhelm into alignment.
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This course is a good fit if you:

Want More Clarity In Life

You know your best life is waiting, and want some practical tools to get you there.

Feel Stuck/Overwhelmed

Learn how one decision can make thousands of decisions for yourself.

Have Stress/Health Issues

The mental and emotional strain of life is taking a physical toll on your body.

Have Trouble Saying 'No'

Struggling to say no to opportunities and feeling like everything’s a yes?

Want Better Relationships

Relating in ways that do not reflect your core values is affecting your social life.

Suffer From Burnout

Running at full throttle has left you drained and ready to throw in the towel.
In hindsight I can see that I used to be like Little Red Riding Hood, running through the forest, trying to find my path while all the time hoping to evade those hungry wolves which were nipping at me. Now I feel like I am sitting inside a strong and fast vehicle from where I can see the road clearly and am being made aware every time I slightly deviate from my path. Right from the first session I felt a huge shift inside of me which helped me finish a very important project which had previously been a major pain point in life. By completing it, total joy emerged. Thanks to this wonderful technique. 
Angie Lotte - Student - An Introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making

What's Included

🎓 The Daily Compass Core Process – $299 value

Learn how to develop a value that can be applied to your daily decision-making, acting like a compass to keep your actions pointing towards the life you want.

📝 Holistic Context Creation – $1099 value

The heart of the Values-Based Decision-Making process. Develop your set of higher values that represent your best life, identify the actions that will lead you towards it, and have a set of indicators to keep you on track.

🗣️ Online Feedback From Two Facilitators – $279 value

Two course facilitators will be on hand to provide feedback in Google Docs as you work with values, spot checking, decision-making and the inventory.


 Spot Check Process – $247 value

This VBDM system allows you to see where you are in relation to your higher values, and recognize what the next action will be that can take you closer.


Take Inventory On Your Life - $249 value

Using the Eight Forms of Capital, you will take stock of the things in your life to gain insight into the resources at your disposal, so that you can make the most of them in your decision-making.


Decision-Making Model - $497 value
This iconic, eight-part model tests whether decisions will lead you towards your ideal life. It weeds out unintended consequences, and rewires your decision-making as you practise it.

🧰 Tools of Sovereignty Kit – $129 value

Commitment Audit, Glass and Rubber Balls approach, Horsepower boundary scripts, Indicators worksheet, and Decision Filter cheat sheet.

🗣️ 2 x 1-on-1 Support Calls – $199 value

During the course, you will have two opportunities to connect with a facilitator for a 30-minute private session.

 Workbook – $299 value

A workbook guides you through the various exercises, step by step, giving you a significant body of self-reflective work.

🤝 Community and Reflection Bundle – $147 value

Anonymized examples of a Daily Compass, peer insights, and access to an opt-in list for accountability partners or study buddies.

🔁 3 Months of Integration Support – $147 value

After moving through the material and exercises, you will have three more months (with three more live calls) to integrate what you have learnt and apply it in your life. This makes it more comprehensive than working one-on-one.

Total Value: $3,591

Your Price: $1,599

1-year access

WHAT IS VALUES-BASED DECISION-MAKING?

Values-Based Decision Making (VBDM) helps envision an ideal future and use guiding values to shape decisions. Instead of chasing goals, it prioritizes values that enhance long-term quality of life.
Values-Based Decision-Making (VBDM) is a dynamic system for decision-making and visioning that encourages us to imagine the future we desire, whether in life, business, or relationships, and identify the values that will guide us toward that future. By using these clarified values as a filter, VBDM helps us evaluate both large and small decisions based on their potential to create the life we envision. Instead of fixating on goals, VBDM shifts the focus to the values we must embody to become the people we aspire to be. This approach challenges the cultural norm of prioritizing goals above all else, which often leads to sacrificing quality of life. Instead, VBDM emphasizes cultivating values that enhance our quality of life while avoiding the endless pursuit of fleeting goals.

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
Javan K. Bernakevitch, the creator of VBDM, first encountered Allan Savory’s Holistic Management and Holistic Decision Making in 2010. While inspired by Savory’s ideas, Javan found their application, primarily focused on land-based cattle grazing, too narrow to encompass the broader potential of these concepts. Additionally, some elements of the flow and usability of Savory’s system created friction for practitioners.

Dan Palmer, of Very Edible Gardens and later Making Permaculture Stronger, reinterpreted Savory’s work, calling it Holistic Decision Making as well. Dan’s innovative ideas greatly influenced Javan, and their collaboration was formative until Dan’s passing in 2022. Over the past 15 years, Javan has continued to evolve VBDM, working with over 2,000 clients and students to refine it into a versatile, living system.

HOW DOES VBDM DIFFER FROM OTHER HOLISTIC DECISION MAKING MODELS?
Javan’s adaptation of VBDM includes several key innovations:

Ongoing Integration of Values: Instead of treating the clarification of values (referred to in Holistic Management as a "Holistic Context") as a one-time or annual task, VBDM promotes the active and consistent use of values on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and yearly basis. This practice ensures values are deeply embodied and lived.

Refined Visioning Process: VBDM employs visioning exercises designed to distill and challenge values until they truly resonate - what Javan describes as values that "sing" for clients.

Focus on Weak Links: Through the Daily Compass, VBDM emphasizes identifying and addressing weak links that may hinder progress toward one’s values.

Streamlined Decision-Making Practices: VBDM incorporates both short and long-form decision-making processes to minimize decision-making friction while maintaining alignment with values.

Collaborative and Evolving Framework: VBDM remains open to innovations and contributions from students and clients, making it a flexible, organic system that evolves with each practitioner’s experience.

By centering on values rather than traditional goals, VBDM offers a grounded yet transformative framework for decision-making and personal growth, fostering a life aligned with what truly matters.

Javan has developed a powerful tool for personal growth and accountability. His facilitation skills and processes allowed all participants to feel comfortable and go deep with the work, through small group breakouts and large group sharing. I believe everyone would find tremendous value in this course, regardless of your knowledge or familiarity with the tool.
Ry Thompson - Student - An Introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making
An Introduction to 

Values-Based
Decision-Making

Javan was recently hosted by Zach Weiss of Water Stories to explain what VBDM is all about. Check out the introduction below.
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I came into this course feeling burnout from years of pushing myself to just go go go. I was at a point where I new I needed to change but I also had lost a lot of trust in myself to choose something that didn't lead to the same place in the road. The course gave me a feeling for how to use my decision making muscles differently and how to recognize when I was falling into old patterns. It additionally gave me the confidence that I could navigate my way to a different result and I am now excited to explore that process.
Stephen Weinberg - Student - An Introduction to Values-Based Decision Making

Course contents

Course Logistics

WHAT

Ten live calls, every second week, while we cover the 10 modules.

Three monthly calls thereafter, providing support while you integrate the work and the concepts.

All calls last 120 minutes via Zoom.

You will also have two private 30-minute calls available during the course.

Recorded video instructions and a workbook guide your process in between calls.

WHEN

Calls will take place on the following days:

Class 1 - March 14 2026
Class 2 - March 28 2026
Class 3 - April 11 2026
Class 4 - April 25 2026
Class 5 - May 9 2026
Class 6 - May 23 2026
Class 7 - June 6 2026
Class 8 - June 20 2026
Class 9 - July 4 2026
Class 10 - July 18 2026

Support Call 1 - August 15 2026
Support Call 2 - September 12 2026
Support Call 3 - October 10 2026

TIME ZONE

Calls will start on:

Saturdays at
9am PT,
10am MT,
11am CT,
12pm ET

Each call lasts up to 2 hours.

All calls are recorded, and available by the following Tuesday.

COST

$1599 USD

This course is ~50% of the cost of working one-on-one with Javan in Values-Based Decision-Making.
One of the most effective, truly personalized and context-driven systems for decision-making that is out there. Through nearly a decade of systems thinking, analytical work and strategic planning, I've yet to come across a more thorough but also practical and straightforward approach to making decisions. I'm not sure there's someone out there who COULDN'T find value from this course. Highly recommend!
Susan Cousineau - The Farm Ecologist

How it started

It was 2012, and I was running a regenerative land design business using tools like permaculture, dryland farming, and mycological restoration to design and install urban homesteads.

I had 37 projects running simultaneously and was beyond overwhelmed.

A friend asked if I knew the work of Allan Savory, specifically his Holistic Management for grazing.

I didn't.

Due to my work's urban and suburban gardening focus, I felt that Holistic Management was unnecessary.

He asked if I knew about Savory's approach to decision-making, "Holistic Decision Making"?

Again, I didn't.

He said it could radically change my life and my time management skills, or lack thereof.

I spent the next four months digesting the dense and weighty tome "Holistic Management," second edition. Allan's language was difficult for me to understand at the time.

Slowly, I understood his approach to grazing, which at the time was lost on the work I was doing, and his approach to decision-making, which lit a fire in me to clarify the values for a project FIRST and then use those values to EVALUATE any action or decision that would lead me to the future I desired.

I added, subtracted, and curated to supplement his decision-making structure for grazing projects so that it would be universally applicable to all people and projects.

Values-Based Decision-Making was born.

With an understanding of the future I wanted and the values that would describe that future, I was able to chart a course and make tangible steps that made me feel like my desired future was becoming a reality.

The 37 projects were quickly whittled down to the essential 12, which were then quickly crossed off the list.

I started to curate daily tools to help keep me on track.

Today, I'm managing more than I did at the time, in more considerable diversity, including:
  • 90+ permaculture design students in 2 courses;
  • 35+ students in a current regenerativeliving.online course;
  • developing new courses with collaborating instructors for regenerativeliving.online;
  • new regenerative business design clients;
  • Three life design clients;
  • Two land design clients;
  • influx of 8 potential clients for both life and land design;

As well as the day-to-day chores we all have to address, plus some personal interests, including:
  • continuing my guitar practice;
  • working out 3-5 times a week;
  • participating in an online men's group once a week;
  • learning cello;
  • meditating 2-3 times a week;
  • not to mention, the laundry, food sourcing and preparation, and connection with my husband and dog and everything else that comes with being alive today.

I attribute my productivity to the simple application of Values-Based Decision-Making, specifically the Daily Compass, which I've often used to focus on what I'm doing and the time I have to do it.

This course will give you an introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making by applying a Daily Compass, focusing on time management and productivity or another area of your life. It will be an opportunity for you to use the theory and practice of this approach to gauge whether it's a fit for you and your life.

You'll be walked step by step through envisioning the future you want for your time management, or whichever area of your life you want to improve, and how to make that future a reality.

If you follow along with the process over our four sessions, you'll create a Daily Compass and fine-tune the statement and the actions you take to make it a reality.

You'll have the opportunity for feedback if you so choose and interaction with your classmates.

It's easy to become overwhelmed by everything we are asked to address in our world. Much of what calls our attention is out of our control, but how we respond to these calls for our attention is in our control.

This course will provide you with a tool to take more responsibility for the actions that are within your control and step toward the future you desire.

I hope to see you in class!

Javan "Effective > Efficient" Bernakevitch
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The approach of Values-Based Decision-Making provides a game changing tool when it comes to time management and productivity. Thanks to the introspection process and self awareness, the obstacles that blind your vision become evident and easier to remove.
 Juan David Mery Fernandez - Drone Pilot
Meet the instructorS

Javan Bernakevitch

Javan K. Bernakevitch is passionate about helping people create more abundant, diverse and profitable landscapes and lives that get better year after year. An educator, designer and guide for clients he works to fundamentally shift consciousness to create change.

He leads All Points Land Design, providing expert consultancy for regenerative farms, homesteads, landscapes, and developments, from vast 6500-hectare projects to efficient urban spaces, helping clients achieve thriving, sustainable systems.

Grounded in the belief that "if you don't design your life, it'll be designed for you," Javan empowers clients to align their decisions with their values, rethink entrenched beliefs, and create or pivot regenerative businesses that embody their essence through Life Design.

As the founder of Regenerative Living, Javan collaborates with world-class practitioners and educators to teach transformative skills "to live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Since 2015, he has worked with Oregon State University as an instructor for the Permaculture Design Course PRO, contributing innovative curriculum and content development.

A multifaceted professional, speaker, educator, author, filmmaker, course designer, and publisher, Javan champions harmony with nature in every aspect of his work.
Patrick Jones - Course author
Patrick Jones - Course author
Meet the instructorS

Tristan Holme

Tristan brings deep experience in facilitation, peer learning, and values-based work. He has applied VBDM extensively in his own life and in group settings, and now supports others to do the same. 

As Teaching Assistant and small group facilitator, Tristan offers presence and support — including personalized one-on-one sessions to help you clarify and refine your values and practise decision-making. Students consistently describe his presence as grounding, insightful, and steady.

Tristan is a social designer, group facilitator and intentional community co-founder living in South Africa. Having experienced consistent success employing VBDM with individuals, forming groups and established communities, he now teaches individuals and collaborative groups to identify their core values and make holistic decisions towards the future they desire.
Patrick Jones - Course author

Frequently asked questions

How long will I have access to the course material?

You'll have access to the course material for one year from the start date of the course.

Is the course refundable?

The course is non-refundable.

Can my partner or friend look over my shoulder while I take the course?

Yes! Your registration allows for one "over the shoulder" viewing of the course. This could involve doing the process as a partnership or business, where you identify values for that collective rather than for individuals. We ask you not to share your login information with anyone else. 

Will we learn the entire Values-Based Decision-Making framework?

Yes! This course includes the full VBDM process, where you will build your own Holistic Context (value set), take an Inventory using the 8 Forms of Capital, and learn a powerful process for making holistic decisions.

Design Your Life Today!

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