Who You’ll Be This Year: Values, Goals, and a Different Kind of Resolution

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this New Year’s episode, Dr. Rick and Forrest make the case that most resolutions fail because they focus on the wrong things: outcomes and behaviors rather than key values. They explore how we can identify our important values, embrace caring about them, and start to let them change our behavior. Forrest talks about how we can differentiate authentic values from “conditions of worth,” and Dr. Rick shares a number of ways to get more in touch with what matters to you. Topics include translating “shoulds” into values, experiencing more autonomy and agency, creating personal narratives, and finding your “stance toward the year.” Key Topics: 0:00: Intro: values, self-concept, and levels of action 7:22: Living from states of having, doing, and being 13:09: Stances toward life based in threat versus opportunity; what are you paying attention to? 20:18: Examining “shoulds” to find and define your authentic values 33:30: Emulating the people you admire and respect most 41:55: Strategies to identify your root values 54:05: Recap Rick's Goals Course: If you want to get more out of the year ahead check out Rick’s online course on resolutions that last. Learn more at RickHanson.com/goals, and use coupon code BeingWell25 to receive a 25% discount. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Listen to Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show so you never miss an episode. Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns. If you are exploring whether you might be neurodivergent, check out Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson. Skylight is offering our listeners $20 off their 10 inch Skylight Frame by going to myskylight.com/BEINGWELL. Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Hanson.
0:09.3	If you're new to the podcast, thanks for joining us today. And if you've listened to before, welcome back.
0:14.7	Last time we talked about the rising culture of nonchalance and that protects us from feelings of disappointment.
0:21.7	Caring is risky, but it's also pretty mandatory if you want to get anywhere in life.
0:25.7	And this topic is particularly relevant right now when people are thinking about how they
0:29.7	want their life to look over the year ahead. So if we're going to care this year, if we're going
0:34.4	to care about something, what do we want to care about? How do we want to
0:37.8	aim that caring? Most New Year's content does this through the lens of specific goals and resolutions.
0:44.6	Those resolutions are typically behavioral in nature. Wake up earlier, you know, for me, eat more
0:50.8	kale, which my parents have been trying to get me to do since I was about six years old,
0:54.8	whatever it is for you. There's totally a place for this, and we'll be talking about goals and
0:59.3	behaviors a bit today as well. But those goals and behaviors exist in a really important,
1:04.2	larger context, the kind of person you want to be. And this means your general sense of who you
1:10.7	are, your stance towards your life,
1:13.5	and importantly, your values. That's what we're going to be focusing on in this episode.
1:18.8	Using the New Year as a chance to clarify that stance and those values, and hopefully you'll
1:23.7	leave this episode with a clearer sense of what you care about and a few concrete ways to
1:28.7	live that out in your life. So to help us do that, I'm joined today by clinical psychologist. Rick Hansen,
1:33.9	Dad, how are you doing today? I'm good. And I've been reflecting about how it's easy to treat this topic
1:41.0	as a little bit like a cliche, Hallmark card.
1:44.8	Sure.
1:45.2	Well, in fact, it's arguably one of the top handful of topics for anyone in a life that involves
	...

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