With the new year quickly approaching, many of us are reflecting on our experiences over the last 365 days. For those in leadership positions, your reflection probably revolves around how effective you were when it came to inspiring and improving the lives of others. While the upcoming year provides a fresh opportunity to aim even higher with your interpersonal goals, it’s important to also focus within. So before you sit down to write a compartmentalized list of resolutions, consider including goals that can help improve every area of your personal well-being. Here are three life goals worth aiming for in the new year.
- Read More
Reading has an impressive list of benefits. Not only can reading make you a better leader, it can also reduce stress levels, enhance your ability to empathize, and improve the quality of your life. This year, make it a goal to read daily. Although printed books lead to higher comprehension rates than ebooks, both formats are helpful. If you prefer the latter, you can find ebooks through your local library, or through a monthly subscription service like Scribd or Kindle Unlimited. Through daily reading, you can increase your subject knowledge on a variety of topics, or broaden your imagination with creative genres like fantasy or science fiction.
- Learn a New Skill
While there is always room to hone your leadership skills, there’s nothing wrong with learning a completely new skillset. It’s been scientifically proven that practicing unfamiliar tasks leads to the production of myelin, which improves the brain’s overall functionality. So this year, why not increase your brain’s efficiency by tackling a fresh challenge? If you already have one in mind, great! If not, you can get ideas by searching the internet for premade lists (like this one) of interesting skills. After deciding on a skill, decide how to set yourself up for success. You may need to find a mentor, enroll in a formal class, or save up money for supplies. From there, set check-in dates to monitor your progress and reassess (if necessary).
- Indulge In Self-Care
Often, leaders are so focused on setting goals that pertain to their careers and social lives that they forget to set goals for their mental health. Without an adequate amount of time to relax and recharge, achieving the rest of our goals is nearly impossible. Take a moment to reflect on the status of your mental, physical, and emotional health. Do you feel out of alignment? Is there an area that you should devote extra attention to in the upcoming year? If so, now’s the perfect time to fix the problem. Self-care goals can include meditation, journaling, therapy, time at the spa, and so much more. Write down activities that you think would provide the most stress relief, and make a promise to yourself to see them through.
Let the new year mark the beginning of your improved mindset. In addition to setting health and career resolutions, use these three life goals to ensure that your objective is to be holistically healthy. By implementing these changes, you’ll begin to see a shift in your overall well being that will trickle down to positively affect your ability to lead confidently and efficiently.
