It’s a new year, and everyone’s buzzing about growth, goals, and fresh starts on LinkedIn. It’s like a resolution party, and we’re all invited! But before you dive headfirst into making your own resolutions, how about taking a step back to consider what you really and truly want?
Let’s Keep It Real with Resolutions and Goals
It’s easy to get swept up in the sea of LinkedIn posts and office chatter about resolutions and goals. As go-getters, we’re all about reaching those big career milestones, boosting productivity, and surpassing expectations. The new year is the time to showcase our dreams of super success. I myself am no stranger to succumbing to the pressure to aim higher and work harder. But in the midst of all this hype, we need to pause and figure out which resolutions truly speak to us. That never ending push to achieve more can make it tricky to separate what we think we want in our professional lives from what we actually want.
How Are You Really Feeling?
So, here’s the question: How are you feeling heading into 2024? Yes, it sounds simple to ask, but it’s not always easy to answer, especially when it comes to our work life. Our true feelings about work can be harder to access and name, especially if we’re influenced by the culture of achievement and hustle that surrounds us. Our work environments don’t always encourage us to be totally honest about our feelings (in fact, complete honesty can sometimes get us into trouble, depending on the environment we’re in).
So instead, we often keep our emotions in check, edit ourselves to sound better, or shut down entirely. This makes it challenging to understand how we feel about work, much less express it. This lack of understanding leads us to set goals that meet our surface-level needs or others’ expectations rather than our deeper desires and values.
How a Therapist Can Help
This is where a trained therapist who is familiar with the corporate world and culture of achievement can make a huge difference. A therapist with this unique perspective can help you untangle your emotions about your career, workplace dynamics, and personal goals, so you can be clearer about your path forward. It may not seem intuitive to see a therapist when you’re not necessarily struggling, but having a private and understanding space to express and explore your feelings without worrying about consequences can be a game-changer. And, unlike colleagues, bosses, or coaches, therapists are bound by confidentiality, focusing solely on your emotional journey, regardless of how it fits into organizational or societal expectations.
Making Resolutions That Feel Authentic
Figuring out how we feel about our professional journey may be a bit tough, but it’s worth exploring. By acknowledging the discomfort of understanding our deeper emotions, we can set intentional resolutions that truly reflect who we are.
In 2024, let’s embrace a thoughtful and detailed approach to resolution making—a process that begins with understanding how we feel and how we want to feel. Chasing conventional success markers that don’t align with our values can lead to stress and dissatisfaction. Let’s ditch the idea that success is one-size-fits-all and embrace a more personalized approach. Cheers to a year full of genuine emotions, purposeful goals, and a renewed sense of direction—a year where our feelings are just as important as our achievements.
