By Susie Griffin

It’s February 2024. If you were amongst the 37% of the U.S. adult population who made goals or resolutions for the New Year, you may now, in February, find yourself in the good company of quitters. By the second week of January, and most certainly by February, 80% -90% of Americans who created New Year’s resolutions, find themselves quitting. In fact, if you are a short timer with goals, quitting your resolutions by the second Friday in January, there is something to celebrate — Quitter’s Day. However, if you have made it this far with your resolutions intact, you already knowingly or unknowingly have the substance that those other 80 to 90 percenters failed to fuel their resolutions.

In the Winter Semester Business and Communications class at Northland Pioneer College’s Therapeutic Massage Program, the first assignment I had the students complete was a self-assessment. Within that self-assessment, they were tasked with discovering and writing about their purpose and priorities. In a class the previous semester, they had already identified their core values – the words that describe what is important or valuable to them. Businesses typically have these core values – or deeply ingrained principles that are supposed to guide all the company’s actions, on their social media platforms, websites, printed marketing materials, and walls, etc. Words such as authenticity, compassion, innovation, honesty, respect, service, and trust are commonplace. These core values, or principles, the students have defined will serve as a barometer or litmus test to whether a company, co-workers, peers, or clients are a good fit – regardless of place of employment or self-employment.

While the students found defining their core values a challenge, crafting their purpose and priorities served to be even more difficult. This is a very understandable hurdle - it isn’t every day we stop to contemplate and sum up our unique contribution to this world in one sentence, let alone the priorities (or goals) that support it. I relayed to the students how this one sentence - a defined purpose, is applicable in the professional world, often finding its way into a business’s mission and vision statements. To help stimulate creative thought and to show an example, I shared my purpose, “I see potential” and my business’s mission statement, “Inspiring humans to fulfill and share their potential with the world” and vision statement, “To create a world full of inspired, engaged and fulfilled humans.”

The purpose sentence in life or the mission statement in business helps direct focus and attention

to what is important, either to the individual or the organization. The priorities, or goals of a person or business, are the barometers that provide assessment of those purpose sentences, mission, and vision statements. Goals, or priorities, measure individual or organizational success and ensure movement in a direction that supports and gives energy to the purpose statement or mission and vision statements. In short, goals are meant to be tied to a greater purpose.

Considering this, along with one other important component, brings us back to addressing the 80 to 90 percenters who quit their resolutions by February. The important component this majority is missing in fulfilling or “fueling” their resolutions, is passion. Passion, as defined by Frederic M. Hudson and Pamela D. Mclean in their book, Life Launch: A Passionate Guide to the Rest of Your Life, “Your passions are your internal energy source, the fire or determination you have for reaching some destination up ahead.” Your passion will give you the internal resolve to overcome doubt, shame, fear, and other negative emotions that can show up when initiating change. It gives you a turbo boost to go over those hurdles, mountains, and energy to rebound from difficult conversations and people. Passion is the pivotal piece to the puzzle that contains core values, purpose, and priorities.

To best teach my students and clients the power of purpose, priorities, and passion, I best put into practice my purpose, priorities, and passion. In the past month, I’ve been attempting this practice through my participation in the MBAA (The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona) XT mountain bike races. Despite earning medals in almost all the MBAA races I entered last year, I felt unsatisfied. My level of success wasn’t tied to a medal around my neck or my feet on a podium step but on the feeling of fulfilling my potential. So, this year, I put forth the attention and effort to make progress on my purpose.

I implemented the techniques I coach my clients in when implementing change: identifying lesser strengths, construct and turn statements into questions related to those lesser strengths (get compassionately curious about becoming better), seek answers to those questions, develop strategies that support those answers, and then reassess the outcomes. I identified my lesser strengths: my spinning efficiency and cadence, proficiency in cornering and climbing, my conditioning and fitness and body balance on the bike. I then got compassionately curious in getting better by constructing questions around my lesser strengths. What do I need to adjust to spin efficiently and faster? What mind set do I need to conquer technical climbs and what does that feel like in my body? How can I center myself better around corners? I followed up with developing several strategies per question, implementing those strategies, and then reassessing the outcomes.

I noticed a lot of positive changes and progress towards my purpose with the strategies I’ve implemented. There have been two races I’ve entered so far this year. In both races, even though I did earn a spot on the podium, I felt my best improvement was something that no one could see or measure, but that I could feel – how far I’m progressing towards my purpose and honestly expressing my passion. Those feelings contribute to my priorities of being a better friend, four-legged kid mom, coach, teacher, and therapist. I look forward to the rest and best of 2024, far away from Quitter’s Day and closer to our purpose, priorities and passion.