2014 New Year Resolutions

I hope you have had a fantastic festive season and you’re now starting to fuel yourself for a fantastic 2014! I’ve had so many lunches and dinners that I now believe I have a food baby in me!

As I sit here in the sunshine for perhaps the last time in 2013 my mind turns to New Year resolutions. As we enter 2014 there is no doubt that you are going to be setting your New Year resolutions and you’ll be taking the time to set some goals.

2014 New Year Resolutions

Yet, why is it then that most New Year resolutions do not stick and your goals never get achieved?

It really all comes down to one thing.

Your Values.

If you are setting a goal that is not aligned to your values then you can be sure that you’re going to fail right from the start. The reason that 92% of people don’t reach their goals is because they don’t know what their values are and they set goals based on other people’s values.

When you start hearing your own internal dialogue saying ‘I should be doing that’ or ‘I need to do this’ then you know you’re lacking the motivation to actually just do it. The simple fact that you’re lacking motivation immediately lets me know that your goal is not aligned to your highest values.

Let’s take the most common New Year resolution of wanting to quit smoking. You may want to quit smoking because you feel you value health and fitness. However, the fact that you are smoking already lets me know that you value something higher than health and fitness. It’s not your top priority.

In fact, you probably value that relaxing feeling more than you value health and fitness. Unfortunately, smoking is an addictive product so this obviously plays it part as well, but there is something that got you started with smoking and there is something that has kept you smoking. Perhaps you got started because you valued social inclusion or your social identify more than health and fitness.

If you were to truly value health and fitness and this was your highest value, your telos, your ‘calling’ to be healthy and fit, you would do absolutely anything you can possible to quit smoking. Simply put, if your New Year resolution of quitting smoking doesn’t stick it simply means you don’t value health enough.

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to values, it’s simply about understanding what yours are and then aligning them to your resolutions and your goals.

As soon as you can align your goals with your values you increase your chances of attaining that goal dramatically. That’s why our upcoming Launch Your Life Academy has two modules dedicated to the topic of values that you will complete in the first week. It’s fundamental to your success in achieving your goals.

 

The Benefits of Aligning Your Goals with Your Values

Your values are absolutely everything in life. They dictate your thoughts, your behaviours, your action, your happiness and your overall success in life.

When you are truly aligned with your values you become unstoppable. When you live authentically and on purpose you’re on a mission. No challenge or barrier will ever be too big. You will start to notice opportunities around you for making your goal a reality.

Let’s take a look at some specific benefits of aligning your goals with your values.

 

Increased Motivation

When you’re working towards your highest values, you are more motivated than you would be working towards absolutely anything else.

If your highest value is to be a leader in your career, you would do absolutely anything it takes to learn about leadership and implement that into your life.

However, if you did not value leadership in your career and you set a goal to get promoted and become a manager, your motivation levels would be incredibly lower. Your chances of failing are increased dramatically. You could do it, yes, however it will take a lot more motivation for you to pursue this goal (otherwise known as willpower in this example).

 

Increased Commitment and Perseverance

A goal that is aligned to your values will increase your commitment and perseverance, leading to a much higher chance of attaining that goal.

If you have a goal of running a marathon and you don’t value running, do you think you will stay committed for long?

On the other hand, if your highest value is running, do you think you’ll be more likely to stay committed, train for a number of months and make your goal a reality? Of course you would.

 

Increased Creativity

Aligning your goals with your values can increase your creativity.

When you’re working towards something that is aligned to your values, you are in a more positive mental state. When you’re in a more positive state, you are more creative. Your brain juices flow a lot faster when you are doing something you love.

For example, if you set a goal to write a book and you value writing, then you’ll love getting to work and letting your mind run wild. Your chances of success are increased dramatically.

If you don’t value writing and you set yourself a goal to write a book just because you think it’s a great thing to do and you can make some money doing so, you’re creative juices won’t flow, you’ll have less motivation and you will be less likely to persevere.

 

Increased Opportunity

When you are working towards something that you value highly, you will have increased awareness of opportunities that are presented to you.

Have you ever had that experience where when you’re focusing on something you really want and things just somehow come your way? It’s not by chance, it’s simply the fact that your mind is more aware of the opportunities that are available to you.

Aligning your goals with your values will enable you to easily and freely focus your attention on all the opportunities and possibilities that come your way, enabling you to move towards and attain your goal at a greater rate.

 

Increased Confidence

As a result of all of the above and from pursuing something that you truly value, your self-confidence will increase.

Your energy, vitality, motivation and successes will lead you to experience greater confidence than you have ever felt before. As you start to achieve results you will again increase your confidence. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Increased Self-Worth

Similar to the above, aligning your values to your goals will enable you to feel increased self-worth.

Simply put, aligning your values with your goals will enable you to live your life authentically, that is, by being who you truly are.

Living authentically and pursuing what really matters most to you will increase your self-worth. When you increase your self-worth, the world around you will also appreciate you more.

 

More Successful Life in General

Aligning your values with your goals will enable you to have a more successful life in general.

As a result of increased motivation, energy, vitality, confidence and authenticity, your relationships will blossom, your productivity will increase and your success will skyrocket.

Values are everything.

They are the fundamental building block to who you are.

 

The Doors to the Launch Your Life Academy are Opening Next Week

As we enter 2014, I want to ensure that you are fully equipped to be able to elicit your values and set goals that you will actually achieve. The Launch Your Life Academy will provide you the proven-process of eliciting your values and aligning them to your goals which will not only dramatically increase your chances of success, but it will ensure that you embark on a life that is authentically you and what you truly want to do.

I’m pleased to let you know that the doors to the Academy will be open next Tuesday, 7th January for a limited time and to a limited number of people. Mark it in your diary and get ready for what is going to be the best year of your life 🙂

Kind regards,

Brendan

P.S. The Best Personal Development Blogs for 2014 are about to be announced in the next few days… this is one you’re not going to want to miss!

 

 

About the author 

Brendan Baker

Brendan Baker is Australia's leading personal development blogger and and helps people build and grow online businesses based on their passions. He has created the Launch Your Life Academy and Your First 1000 Subscribers. Connect with Brendan: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

Brendan Baker is Australia's leading personal development blogger and and helps people build and grow online businesses based on their passions. He has created the Launch Your Life Academy and Your First 1000 Subscribers. Connect with Brendan: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

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  1. So very true. If you try to set goals that aren’t aligned with your values and core beliefs, you are destined to fail. It just gives us one more reason to look within and really understand who we are as individuals so that we can be the best us possible.

  2. Nice to see your adding value with your helpful article, its a crying shame for the older generation that we did not have this kind of information readily available to us when we were young, but it’s never to late to learn and grow.

  3. You’re right Brendan – Values are so important. Too many times we try to set of in search of outcomes that aren’t fully aligned to our values and then wonder why we struggle to achieve them.

  4. Pathway To Personal Development says:

    So true. Embark on your very own voyage of self-discovery. Find out what makes you tick and what is important in your life. It is only then that you can truly find what motivates you in order to make resolutions that you can keep and stick to.

    HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂

  5. Bozhidar Batev says:

    I love reading your articles! The greatest problems is how to come up with our true values. When I read about goal setting for the first time in my early 18th, I failed to accomplish 90% of what I set out to achieve. During the next year, there wasn’t any substantial improvement in my results but I spent a great deal of time searching for answers. In 2002 I decided to list all the things (thinking patters, behaviors and attitudes) I didn’t like in myself and wanted to change. I chose the top three that caused me the greatest pain as objects of my endeavors in the next year. I thoroughly described my top 3 and how they made me feel. One night as I was pondering on my top 3, I started asking myself why … why … why I do it if it causes me so much pain.

    One of the items in my top 3 was the lack of focus. At that time I tried to do so many things at the same time and usually did finish none. I tried everything to overcome this intrinsic conflict (to focus – not to focus) with no success whatsoever. It took me some time to realize that the deep cause of my lack of focus was the desire to be an achiever, to perform, to accomplish my goals in a record time. It didn’t take much time to come up with my first value – to achieve tangible results. I started focusing my daily efforts on the activities that brought me real world results rather than kept me busy. All of a sudden I became extremely focused on my highest priorities by using the same value that caused the pain in the first place – my desire to achieve real world results – and it became so natural. I even didn’t realize when the fundamental transformation took place.

    The moral of the story is to take the time to understand why we do the things we do because behind the why are our true values. As soon as we are consciously aware of our values, use that same values to replace all the negative habits, behaviors and attitudes into a positive once. In this way you will never ever lack of willpower and persistence to achieve whatever you wish in your life.

    1. Thanks so much for sharing your story, Bozhidar!

      As you mention, it took you a number of years to really understand what it important to you. That’s the way it goes.. it all takes time. There’s a process that one needs to go through to really get to that stage and you found it naturally through trial and error.

      I always say that values are the starting point of everything and your story is such a perfect example of this. Thanks for sharing, I really appreciate it.

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