Do you want to succeed as a leader this year?

Align Your Goals with Your Values for Success in the Coming Year

Are you ready for a madly successful year? Before you rocket into a new year with a plan for achieving some big goal, make sure that goal is your own and doesn't belong to or come from somebody else.

Exterior Influences Can Give You the Wrong Goals

Your core values might not be what you think they are. That's because it's easy to become influenced by society, your friends, family members and others. Consider this if you don't think it's commonplace for people to move away from their true values.

Do your goals line up with your values? They may do a little bit, but they might not be based on the bottom-line beliefs that are most important to you. This happens because we are bombarded with media and marketing messages every day.

Living in our modern-day world means exposure to electronic displays and monitors, sometimes from the minute that we wake up until the minute we go to bed. Audio and video attempt to influence us so that we'll enrich the pockets of manufacturers who are very good at making us believe we need what they have to offer.

This means that your dream to achieve wealth might be something you really think is important to you. But if you have an honest conversation with yourself, you may find that attaining wealth leaves you feeling empty, like there's something missing.

Perhaps wealth wasn't a core value. You just got constantly influenced by outer messages to the point where that persistent repetition made you believe wealth was something that was important to you. Perhaps health, family, friendships or making a difference more accurately speaks to who you are.

How to Discover Your True Values

Here are a few ways to understand what your core values really are.

·??????Think about the things that you are good at doing.

·??????What do you think about constantly?

·??????Consider the people you admire the most.

·??????What was your life like when you were the happiest?

·??????Is there a central theme that runs through your life's most positively memorable times??

·??????Make a list of what you want to achieve and what you want to remove from your life.

·??????If there were no limitations of any kind in your life, what would you be doing? Who would you be spending time with??

·??????What do you love about your life right now? What do you dislike about your life?

·??????What was the most painful time of your life?

Answer these questions honestly. Write down the words and emotions that these questions bring to mind. Look for similarities.?

Then use your answers to reveal your true values, not those that society or other outside influences might be misleading you to adopt. Chase goals that are closely aligned with your true values, and success in the upcoming year is much more likely to happen.

If you want to learn more about leading with impact, check out the free Leadership Scorecard . You'll get a personalised report and insights into how you can lead at your best in 3 minutes.