The holiday season is usually exciting for seasonal parties, both personal and professional. However, as many have found, they make New Year’s resolutions that may not serve them going forward. As in the past, they will be leading lives non-congruent with their core values, resulting in unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment. This is not uncommon in making New Year’s resolutions or any plans for the future. We are all complex beings holding a various set of core values, not just those that are corporate related. Consider where your deep views rest: Patriotic Convictions, Importance of grandparents and relatives, Intellectual growth, financial ethics, Respect for others, Moral worldview, and Reverence for any higher source. Core values are not characteristics such as kindness, loyalty, or daring. They are the principles that are worth living or dying for.
Meaningful success is a different value construct for each of us. We must define for ourselves what are the critical fundamentals we need from all efforts including self-expression, emotional fulfillment, psychological satisfaction, and spiritual joy. There is not an established rulebook on how you find your meaningful work and eventual success. You may not immediately see the realization of your efforts in your lifetime, but the legacy you leave will long be remembered by those that you served.
Combining core values with what you think meaningful success could be can take reflection for an hour or a week. Use something as simple as paper and pencil or if you have some technical app to record your thoughts, go to it. Remember that any commitment (resolution) you make to yourself has components that make them feasible such as:
- Have a clear vision of the final outcome(s) you desire, state the time period required; and include the expected steps for achievement. Write your resolutions on a poster board or in simple post-it notes that you can see daily as a reminder, boosting your resolve. Also, define how success will be measured. How will you know you have achieved what you initially intended?
- Define any other sacrifices you may have to make such as reserving one night weekly for that family evening and moving on to another activity accordingly.
- Discard self-reproach over arranging programs just for your fulfillment. If volunteering as a reading mentor or scheduling that reiki massage causes you guilt, consider that guilt is a learned response. History has proven that family units, cultural bands, or even devout faith-based groups teach contrition in self-indulgence.
Remember ‘carpe diem’!