We’re a few days into 2015: what is your New Year’s resolution?

If you’re still thinking about your goals for the year, Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens – who’s also a leadership advisor and the founder of Think Leadership Ideas – has some good advice.

He says a lot of people focus on fixing their problems – but there’s another possible approach.

“I tell folks to focus on strengths,” he says. “Particularly if you really want to do something interesting in the world – if we all (just) fix our weaknesses, then (we’ll just be) kind of mediocre at everything…

“Better to take some things you do really, really well and polish them and keep making them world-class.”

Read the full piece from Stevens, on ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com.

Stevens says we can also benefit, in general, by making an effort to step “outside our comfort zone” – and engage in new activities, or try to see the world from new perspectives.

And he says the most rewarding self-improvement doesn’t come in the form of reachable goals – but rather being dedicated to an ongoing process of “cultivating” yourself.

“We tend to think, ‘here’s a goal and I’ll arrive at it,'” he says. “But the things that are important to us – friendships, developing a trait like a sense of humor, working on my health – (it’s more about) how we cultivate those things…

“It’s an outcome, something that we cultivate – much like we cultivate a garden,” he continues. “It’s sort of a state of being.”

So if you haven’t come up with your New Year’s resolution yet, there’s some advice – and if you have, there’s still plenty of time to reconsider.

You can find more from Tom Stevens at ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com.

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