This question is for you alone to answer. Do you know what is going to be most important to you this year and what’s not? This is not about group-think and what everybody else is doing or not doing. It’s about what you are going to value this year.

It’s also about being very intentional in 2012. Auto-pilot rarely helps anyone be fully effective. My challenge to you as we open the year is to begin to think deeply about your priorities and values this year, all of them…personal as well as professional.

Notice that I said “what you are going to value this year.” This should not strictly be a list of “to-do’s.” Maybe this year you need “be” more than “do.” Maybe not. My point is that we, in our increasingly achievement-oriented Western mindset, are always placing the highest premiums on “what gets done.” Whoever does the most, the best, the biggest, the fastest, etc…is the winner.

But, maybe those people are, in reality, the losers sometimes. I believe that the difference is in what it costs to do all of these things. What is the price that you will pay? If “winning” means that spirituality, family, friends, rest and other significant values suffer in order to “win,” then maybe you’ve actually “lost.”

Also, don’t be too quick to think that you know exactly what your values are. Trust me, they change with time. To help you think through:
www.cvs.k12.mi.us/careers/pdfs/LIFE%20VALUES%20INVENTORY%205_01_08_1%20(2).pdf

So…what is “winning” going to look like to you this year and how intentional are you willing to be to “win?”

More on goal-setting in my next newsletter.