Don't set annual goals, you should cultivate lifelong values instead

I must tell you: I no longer set New Year resolutions or goals or whatever else we call these intentions to start over – or carry on – with renewed energy. I haven’t set New Year goals in the last three years or more. The last time I did was in the year before the pandemic and like every year before that, I failed at nailing those goals. I failed and failed royally.

I was convinced that there was something wrong with me. Perhaps I was not motivated enough, perhaps I lacked the push factor to drive me from here to where I wanted to be. Perhaps inertia was my new middle name.

But I went back to the whiteboard with self-awareness and maturity, and I was wise enough to realise that the problem wasn’t me, and neither was it the goals I was setting. It was the process.

I was approaching the process all wrong – I was not doing things in line with me as me, as the individual that is Florence Bett, the personality that is driven by the colour and music of creativity. I was approaching it the way they have shown thousands out there to approach it.

Let me illustrate it. Like you, I always want to make more money every year, more money than I made last year. Previously my goals would be something like this: ‘Ask your Editor to increase your rate per story.’ Or, ‘Write for other weekly Nation publications.’ Also, ‘Partner with brands to make money off your blog content.’

I no longer approach things in this fashion. Instead of goals and resolutions, I create a toolkit of personal values. I don’t plan to meet any goals, I set out to create a lifestyle informed by these values. I don’t have resolutions but guiding principles.

I also don’t limit myself to the 12 months of a year, I have stretched the refinement of these personal values into as long a future as I need to.

It’s a slow burn, this approach. I feel like a chef who is slow-cooking a pot of roast beef for eight hours. You leave for work in the morning and when you return home in the evening, it’s still in the oven cooking.

Refining personal values

What I now do, dear reader, I put more effort into creating and refining my personal values – smashing a goal will be a consequence of these personal values, I may not even notice that I have smashed it. If I don’t smash a goal, well, it’s not a failure either because I have these personal values to carry me through.

Here’s what I mean. One of my personal values is that, if I intend to do anything then I must do it and do it well. I must put in my heart and soul. Give it 180 per cent of everything I can. Granted, I will not give it so much that it becomes unhealthy, I must recognise my own limits so that I know where – and when – to draw the healthy boundary.

Another of my personal values is that my work should be consistent and it should fulfil me and uplift you. At the very least, it should educate or edify you, perhaps both. Bonus points if my work educates, edifies and entertains you. Nailing all three is like experiencing a solar eclipse.

Personal fulfilment comes from being proud of the work I am putting out there, for bursting over when I see my name accompanying it. It also comes from the joy of just being able to create and share with you. 

Yet another of my personal values is making my hay while the sun shines. Striking while the iron is hot. Chopping the tree when my axe is sharpened. Blowing the…OK, you get what I’m saying. 

How I express this value is that I only work from 8 am to 4.30 pm and from Monday to Friday, except Thursday. Thursday is my day off. On Thursdays I don’t turn on my laptop to write anything – I read and relax and do other things to rest my mind.

That said, how do I marry my personal values into my personal goals? Let me illustrate it yet again with my money goals. Instead of pestering my editor to increase my rate per story and writing other columns in the Daily Nation, instead of knocking on brands’ doors to ask them for partnerships on my blog, I will first create work that fulfils me and uplifts you.

I will do this consistently for years and I guarantee you, the money will come chasing after me. It will also come with such honourable blessings as recognition and respect, impact and legacy, and plenty more that my young eyes are yet to see. 

@_craftit; [email protected]