The New Year’s Resolution – a Psychological Type Perspective

If you are like most people I know, you get off to a good start with your New Years resolutions, and then…

Every New Year we are bombarded with articles and advice about “sticking” to our resolutions and how to meet our goals. The common theme is proper planning: don’t take on a lot on at once, make your goals specific and actionable, and tackle them in bite-sized chunks, one step at a time. Neurological research seems to confirm that we can only take on small chunks at a time if we are going to be successful in making changes in our behavior.

Yet, as with everything else, the advice will only resonate if it aligns with who you are. If you are not a planner by nature, it may be harder for you to implement the suggestions that abound. It might take more energy. You might give up without even knowing why.

Becoming more conscious about why we give up may help. Our Psychological Type can supply some insight. Our Type can serve as a guide or map for helping us to make our resolutions stick.

We can do this by understanding our Dominant Function (click here to read about the Dominant Function) ; our key perspective – what motivates us, what is important to us and what we value.  Acquaintance with our Dominant Function can make resolutions a bit easier to keep.

For instance as an ENFJ, my Dominant Function is Extraverted Feeling. As an Extraverted Feeling Type it will most likely not take too much energy for me to resolve to find networking groups and “connect” with people more often just for the fun of connecting.

However, if I resolve to connect with people in various networking groups as part of my strategic plan to increase sales, it might take a bit of an effort. This would require that I create a strategic marketing plan (calling on my Thinking functions) and fit that piece into the plan. I can’t do that by simply using my Extraverted Feeling Dominant Function but I can do it in service of my Dominant.  My passion, motivation, reason for being here, is to help people to grow and develop, to  gain more self-awareness – to be in a better position to make better professional choices. If I identify this as my goal, to help more people and reach a wider audience, rather than simply declaring that “I am going to increase sales”, I am more likely to be successful. My goal to impact a wider audience resolution aligns to what I value above all else.

By listening to your Dominant Function and where it is taking you, you just might make your resolutions stick. So why not let your Type, and what you know about yourself and your internal motivators lead the way instead?

What is your Dominant Function, and how can it help you reach your goals for the New Year?

Interested in learning more about you and your team’s Dominant Functions  and how they impact growth and development? The People Skills Group can help you and your team tap into your natural intelligence and build skills to learn to work better together.  Contact me for more information on how you and your team can engage Type Development for more professional success.  cindy@thepeopleskillsgroup.com