Give a little thought to making 2017 a good year

This is a goal-driven time of year. With the start of the new year, many people set goals for themselves, their household, their company or organization. A new year can means a new start  – even a new you.

Whether it’s health and wellness goals, organizational goals, academic goals or life-changing goals, now seems like a good time to start anew. And there’s a whole lot of advice out there to help you along.

Have you looked at your email lately? I get notifications from a number of websites, religious and secular. They all have advice on how to be the “best you” in 2017.  Here at The Voice, we add to that advice with our special coverage on Health and Wellness in this issue.

Our publisher, Jeffrey Savit, the CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, announced quite publically in his latest Shabbat message that he had a fitness goal. And he tied a measure of tzedakah to his workout routine. You can read his message on the Jewish Alliance website (jewishallianceri.org). 

Challenges are a good thing for the rest of us, too.

So, how are you feeling about 2017? Are you setting goals? Do you set them high? Does it bother you when you miss them? Do you set some that are easy to achieve so you can be motivated by success? Or do you avoid goals altogether to avoid the failure and frustration of missing them?

I’m not much of a public goal-setter. I never liked the whole “New Year’s Resolution” process. Too much pressure. I’ve always had personal, ongoing goals – and I add to them almost daily, it seems. But once-a-year pronouncements seem a little forced for me. I have a lot of respect for those who do make their goals public, especially if that generates extra motivation for them, but it’s not for me.

Whether you set goals or not, now is a good time to think about how this new year can be better than last year. Are you going to make any changes, even small ones? Read a little more? Volunteer a little more? Study a little more? Work a little less?

Give it a thought.

Now is the time.

Happy New Year.