Goals and I do not get along. For years, I would join millions of people on New Year’s Day to set aside time and define concrete, SMART, goals for myself. Lose ten pounds by March. Read twenty-five books this year. Have a weekly date night with my husband. And then, inevitably, life would happen and the goals would fall by the wayside, leaving me feeling defeated and like I had failed. Goal setting became inextricably linked to failure and defeat.
It is no wonder then that I, like many others I know, ended up scrapping the practice entirely. While this temporarily helped me avoid feeling like a useless failure, it also left me stagnating in the muck of my own status quo with an urge for more, but without a clear path or motivation to get there. It was in this muck that I came across a practice that has transformed my New Year reset from a time of fear and skepticism to one of excitement and promise. Instead of goal setting, I began value setting.
Value setting is a mindset shift from what you want to achieve to who you want to be and how you want to live. Instead of being tied to rigid endpoints, value setting grounds you in your core principles, giving you a flexible yet powerful guide for life. This is a helpful tool to use in your personal life and it can also be particularly impactful when you apply it to your work life.
Tips for Value Setting
- Identify what matters most
Start by asking yourself questions like:
- What kind of person do I want to be at work?
- What impact do I want to have on others?
- How do I want to feel?
- What principles do I want to guide my actions?
- What reputation or legacy do I want to cultivate?
Your answers will often begin to illuminate what you value most. If you need a little help choosing specific words that capture your values, there are countless lists online that can help like this one. Choose your top 3-5 to start and don’t be afraid to adjust as you go!
- Visualize your values
Naming your values is one thing, but there have been many studies that have linked visualization (both internal images in our mind and external images we create) with a greater chance of success. I have made it a practice to create a collage vision board each year representing my values that I put in my office, where I see it every day. If haphazardly gluing magazine clippings to a poster isn’t your thing, consider finding an image, photo, or work of art that represents your values. Or it can be as simple as writing down your values somewhere you will see them regularly, like a sticky note on your computer.
- Focus on alignment, not achievement
I recently started a new role and I struggled to set goals because I didn’t fully understand the context of the job yet. I focused instead on living out my values the best I could. One of my core values is human connection, which helped me very quickly see an opportunity to create a community of practice for professionals who worked with my company. It is now a thriving group and one of my proudest achievements that was driven not by a goal, but by a value.
Goal setting relies on a fixed end point that you either reach or don’t reach, while value setting serves as a guide for work and life. That doesn’t mean that achievement isn’t important. It just changes the starting point from doing to being. Rather than starting with the goal of completing a challenging project by May, I start by being someone who values hard work, dedication, perseverance, etc. If I start from a place of embodying a hardworking person, I will be more inclined to work on that overwhelming project because that is what hardworking people do. I recognize that this is easier said than done.
If you find yourself feeling stuck or overwhelmed, try this simple exercise to help you move forward. Fill in this phrase:
- I value x. What is one small thing a person who values x would do right now?
This depersonalizing thought exercise can help you move past self-doubt and fear and allow you to take steps to become the kind of person you imagine yourself to be.
- Reflect and Refocus
Consider periodically scheduling a values check-in. How are your day-to-day thoughts and actions at work aligning with your stated values? What additional steps can you take to live as the person you aspire to be even (or especially) in situations where it might feel hard? For example:
- If you value communication and connection, how can that lead you to engage productively with the colleague with whom you strongly disagree?
- If you value integrity and fairness, how might you speak up for the colleague you see being treated unfairly?
While goals certainly have their place and are important tools in the workplace, I have found value setting to be a more motivating starting point and foundation for action. Whether I am progressing in my career, navigating difficult relationships, or simply trying to live a better life, values serve as a guide and keep me anchored to what matters most. The more aligned we are with our values, the more grounded we will be as individuals, the better we will show up in our personal and professional relationships, and, ironically, the more likely we will be to achieve our goals. So, as this new year begins, instead of asking What do I want to achieve? try asking, Who do I want to be?
What values will guide your work this year? Write them down, share them with a colleague, or use them to make your next big decision.
By: Dana Hinojosa, Director of Strategic Engagement, MWI