Values as an Antidote to January’s Self-Improvement Season

January arrives with a very specific tone in the UK.

The festive music has quietly disappeared from the radio, replaced by earnest conversations about habits, health and starting again. You make a cup of tea, half-listening, and somewhere between the traffic report and a discussion about productivity there is the clear implication that this is the month to sort yourself out.

Step outside and it continues. Posters at the bus stop. Headlines on your phone. Walking past John Lewis or Tesco, even the shop windows seem to be gently insisting that a better version of you is overdue.

New routines. New habits. New you.

There is something understandable about this. A new year naturally invites reflection. Many people genuinely want life to feel different. But beneath much of January’s self-improvement culture sits a quieter message, one that often goes unchallenged. You are not quite enough yet.

For many people, this is where January starts to feel heavy rather than hopeful.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, often shortened to ACT, offers a different place to begin. Not with the question, How do I improve myself? but with something simpler and more grounding. What matters to me?

Values are at the heart of ACT. They are not goals or outcomes, but qualities of living. Ways of showing up. Things like care, honesty, courage, curiosity or connection. You never complete a value or tick it off a list. You return to it, again and again, in ordinary moments.

This is why values can feel like an antidote to January’s self-improvement pressure. Goals tend to set up a pass or fail system. You either stick to the plan or you don’t. Values work differently. They do not ask whether you are doing well enough. They ask which direction you are moving in.

Research within ACT consistently shows that psychological wellbeing improves not when people finally feel motivated or confident, but when they take small actions aligned with what matters to them, even while feeling low, anxious or stuck. Values-based living supports mental health precisely because it does not depend on feeling good first.

In January, this matters.

Values do not require a new routine, a new body or a new mindset. You can act in line with what matters while feeling tired, fed up or unmotivated. You can live your values on a wet Tuesday morning when the year feels long and the sofa is calling.

Self-compassion sits quietly at the centre of this approach. Self-improvement culture often relies on dissatisfaction. If you push yourself hard enough, you might finally become acceptable. Self-compassion takes a different stance. It says you are allowed to be human and still move towards what matters.

Research on self-compassion shows that people are more resilient and more likely to re-engage after setbacks when they respond to themselves with understanding rather than criticism. Harsh self-talk may sound motivating, but it tends to increase shame and avoidance. Compassion, on the other hand, keeps people in motion.

From here, pacing follows naturally. A values-based life does not need urgency. It unfolds over time. Behavioural science consistently shows that small, repeatable actions are far more sustainable than intense bursts of effort, particularly during periods of low energy or stress. January is rarely the moment for dramatic overhauls. It is often the moment for doable steps.

Values invite a steadier way forward. Walking rather than rushing. Choosing direction rather than demanding transformation.

As the year begins, a more helpful question than What should I achieve? might be this. How do I want to show up, especially when things feel ordinary or hard?

You do not need to fix yourself before your life can have meaning. You can begin where you are, practise self-compassion, move at a humane pace, and let your values guide you through January and beyond.