Align: Ground Your Year In Values

As we move into January, how motivated do you still feel by the New Year’s goals and resolutions you made over the holidays?

If you’re like me, it’s not a lack of discipline or willpower that gets in the way of those goals. The busyness of life does. And trying to force change by adding more to do just doesn’t work.

What does? A clear sense of your values and the state of being you want to embody in the new year.

How does that work? Most goals and resolutions focus on outcomes (I want to make more money) or behaviours (I want to wake up earlier).

The usual formula looks like this:

HAVE → DO → BE

If I want to have X, then I need to do Y. And then I’ll finally be happy. So, happiness depends on effort and doing more.

In contrast, intention-setting starts with how you want to BE and the energy you want to embody, not what you’re forcing yourself to do. The new formula is:

BE → DO → HAVE

If I identify as a calm, present person, then my actions and behaviours support slowing down and a more peaceful existence naturally follows. It works because action flows more effortlessly from identity. And, happiness is no longer contingent on some future event. It's already embodied.