How are your New Year’s resolutions going? Three months into the new year, resolutions are a distant memory for most people. January 1st represents a time for fresh starts and pledges to eat healthy, exercise, forgive more, reduce screen times, be kinder, handle stress better, more productive, etc, etc. But, a few months into the new year, the crowds have thinned at the gym and the salad bar. Spring always seems to bring a new burst of possibilities, so we wanted to take some time to encourage you to set some new goals, and help you develop a plan so you can stay on course.
Resolutions often don’t work because people create them based on what they think they should do, versus what they actually care about. If you are working towards goals that don’t resonate with what you value, you are much less likely to stick with it. And, even if you accomplish the goal, you are much less likely to feel joy than if you achieve something you actually value. Over the next few posts, we are going to focus on a process for setting—and accomplishing—values based goals. Research suggests that pursuing the things that we really value provides us a with a sense of purpose. And, making progress towards that goal gives us a needed boost of positive emotions—fuel for accomplishing even more. In our next post, we’ll focus on an exercise to help you clarify what is really important to you.