by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda Media.

We are a thought leadership company and as such are responsible to clarify our systems and intentions. I’ll use this space to offer what I notice and feel about articles, blog posts and other communications pieces I come across. A new article has just been published in Forbes online “Ten Resolutions The Most Successful People Make And Then Keep”.

It begins:

“Well, it’s that time again—time to start rolling out the New Year’s resolutions. Some of us will vow to eat less, exercise more, live in the moment, be more grateful. You may even decide to bury the hatchet with the family member who makes you so crazy.

But what about your New Year’s business resolutions?

This time of year is a great time to start making—and keeping—business resolutions, too. But sadly, like our personal goals, we often make them (year after year) with sincere intent only to see them quickly fall by the wayside, as we revert to (bad) habits that we have vowed to break.

But what about the most successful people and their resolutions? Have you noticed how the most accomplished people just seem to identify important things and consistently get them done?

Study successful people long enough and you start to pick up on the resolutions they seem to consistently make.”

If you’ve ever received an email or email response from me you might have noticed in my email signature a line “How does your product or service tap into the emotional, archetypal needs we all feel?

It’s a mantra for me and key to cutting through all the marketing chatter bombarding those with whom we communicate. I choose to focus my life and the life of this business on love and recognize anything else is about fear. Our clients usually get this. Essentially they hire us to let the world know how much they love what they do and what they’re able to produce.

The “Ten Resolutions The Most Successful People Make And Then Keep” article dives right into readers’ heads because its subject recognizes that love/fear inner debate. Once our basic survival needs are covered, our longing to experience love and personal development dominate our lives. But many of us have been trained to fear we won’t, aren’t good enough, to get them.

For reasons worthy of a longer, future discussion, our culture is experiencing a pandemic of procrastination and sharing the feeling of shame that accompanies realizing we’re failing ourselves. Thus the subject of resolutions goes right to the core of those archetypal longings to be strong enough and wise enough to do what it takes to become worthy of being loved and able to self-actualize. We’re educated to believe the answer is not inherent and inside but outside of us and thus must be found and consumed.

Have you EVER considered resolutions and NOT set off a psychological undressing inside your self? It’s indeed rare to not find yourself sliding down the rabbit hole of regret about failure to keep past resolutions or charging up resolution hill enthusiastically shouting, “This time I’ll really do it!” Either way almost every one will read on.

The article is especially juicy because it’s almost impossible not to want to learn what others, especially, “especially successful“ others have chosen as their special resolutions.

Consider this when choosing angles for your PR content even if all you are pitching is an app, a piece of hardware, an enterprise solution (don’t forget – decisions are made by humans):

The 16 basic desires that motivate our actions and define our personalities are:

• Acceptance, the need for approval
• Curiosity, the need to learn
• Eating, the need for food
• Family, the need to raise children
• Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one’s clan/ethnic group
• Idealism, the need for social justice
• Independence, the need for individuality
• Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
• Physical activity, the need for exercise
• Power, the need for influence of will
• Romance, the need for sex and for beauty
• Saving, the need to collect
• Social contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
• Social status, the need for social standing/importance
• Tranquility, the need to be safe
• Vengeance, the need to strike back and to compete

I’ve made my point, so now, the ten resolutions:

#1 Spend more time on the not-to-do list
Creating a list of things that you are not going to do, allows you to invest more of your treasured time on the few things that matter the most. (Include procrastination ;-))
#2 Essential first, email second (Distraction = procrastination)
#3 Resolve to think about “Who” (the consumer) instead of “What” (the product or service)
#4 Resolve to find your purpose
#5 Resolve to support a cause
#7 Resolve to find a Yin for your Yang (balancing partner)
#8 Resolve to get outside your jar 
#9 Resolve to be the creator
#10 Plan vacations (now)

Like my advice about the importance of the angle for each story, it’s interesting to notice how many of these resolutions ask us to shift focus from getting what we need and want toward more consideration, compassion, connection with others. Service, sensitivity, love for others (and self!) will actually help us be more productive. Focused on giving love to myself and my world, am I also less likely to childishly choose distraction and instead finally be able to fulfill resolutions? What do you think? Until I hear a really good argument against, I’m going to assume that behavior of your target audience is driven by the way they perceive your offer, seeing everything through the lens of “It’s either about love or fear”.  In SocialAgenda Media we focus on love. Get in touch, let’s talk about Love.