New year new values?

What a time of year to review and therefore reignite what is important to us. Socially it is a big collective moment with a lot of enthusiasm - Awesome! Most self-development and health and wellness coaches know that knowing your why”” is the first factor for motivation - we need the internal as well as the external motivation to take action. These professionals will ask us to review our desires, goals and actions quarterly if not monthly.

As a parent who is immersed in personal growth and did some therapy to learn how to co-parent, I struggled with one of my partners who was also parenting his child. I learned that fully knowing the values that I wanted to instill in my child, were vital in her growth to adulthood. These attributes were critical for me to know so that that they could inform me as to how I parented my daughter. I learned that without knowing them I get lost, and swivel into ineffective parenting or overdone discipline for my daughter.

Here are the 5 attributes from when she was 3 (approximately):

• Joyful/Happy

• Adventurous

• Worldly traveled

• Intelligent

• Resourceful

Take this same clarity in to the new year. Make sure you know your values and goals right now. Allow yourself some grace when you do not follow your brand new ideals perfectly, and wind up in self-critiquing sabotage week 3 out of the gate. Set goals, but be kind to yourself.

What I value right now:

• Eating healthy

• Tending to my fitness

• Self-love in the form of care in the moment. Which equates to my joy list. It equates to making beaded necklaces, taking more baths, walking in nature more, cross country skiing, playing games around a kitchen table with my friends more.

• Connection with like-minded folks who want to care and tend to each other.

• Laughter and honesty.

Now that I have my values realized I start to implement them and I also start to fine-tune what is important for me to do in the present moment. What is attainable right now within my values?

Then I have my goals and I also have my “why” which gives me much more motivation in the moment to move towards my goal with baby steps, and therefore success.

What do you value for yourself and your offspring, now, in 3 months or in the next 5 years?

Happy 2023!!

Sheila Griffith, CMT, CPI, NTP, FPTC