New Years's irresolution

I’ve chosen not to make any specific resolutions this year; I’ve found that they just don’t work for me. Like many people, all I get is a sense of guilt when I inevitably fail to live up to the expectations I set myself at the start of the year. However, I have set a couple of what I’m referring to as “themes” for the year: touchstones that I’ll aim to refer to when setting priorities or just feeling a bit overwhelmed or lacking in direction.

They are:

1. Contribution
2. Self-care
3. Measurement

I may do some blog posts expanding on these, but in the meantime, I’ve put together a handful of questions to help me think about priorities and get perspective when I’m doing (or avoiding doing) something.

1. What difference is this making?
   • I feel more motivated when I can figure out how I’m contributing to something bigger than myself.
   • In society?
   • In my organisation?
   • To my friends & family?
2. Am I looking after myself?
   • I focus a lot on the expectations have (or at least that I think others have) of me, but I can’t do anything well unless I’m generally happy and healthy.
   • Is this making me happier and healthier?
   • Is this building my capacity to to look after myself, my family & friends and do my job?
   • Is this worth the amount of time and energy I’m putting in?
3. Do I have evidence for this?
   • I don’t have to base decisions purely on feelings/opinions: I have the skills to obtain, analyse and interpret data.
   • Is this fact or opinion? What are the facts?
   • Am I overthinking this?
   • Can I put a confidence interval for this?