The tumultuous year of 2020 and the heavy start to this year has shown how easy it is for plans to be scratched. After almost a year of finding organic ways to elicit joy in my life, I pressed down on the gas pedal and followed my high achievement instincts towards goal-setting and productivity.

The challenging route down this path can yield results-oriented happiness or even me chastising myself for not accomplishing enough. This was what I trying to avoid when establishing Results and Goals Day. Far too often, we are focused on the end goal and don’t appreciate the journey itself. On the final day of the month, I celebrate Results Day to take in everything I’ve accomplished. The excitement from this day bleeds into the next for Goals Day, where I set monthly goals based on what I was able to accomplish and what didn’t work. This way I’m able to modify my goals to fit what works best and always find joy with the journey rather than the goal itself.

Prior to the start of this year, I performed an exercise where I bucketed all my goals into categories that were in line with my new word of the year - Wholeheartedness. These categories were all values that I wanted to embody as part of this word, my intention, not just for 2021 but for myself going forward. When I would struggle finding a bucket for a goal that I was interested in, I took it off the list since while it could be a fun hobby/something to pick up in free time, I didn’t want to commit to accomplishing it in the new year. The following categories were the ones I used for this exercise to eliminate any goals with ambiguous intentions:

With values-based goal setting, you work towards an intention that always remains a part of you. This method deconstructs the challenges that people face when they think that they will ‘feel happy’ or ‘be relieved’ once something is accomplished. The truth is, when that moment of accomplishment actually occurs, you realize the happiness wears off quickly and you’re left feeling the same way as before.

This year, I urge you to look towards the individual you aspire to be in the future and work towards the values that you want to live by. There’s little we have control over in the world but we have much more control than we think as the leaders of our own lives.

What goals are you setting this year to align with your values?!