Three Skills to Make Work More Meaningful in 2026

Every January, people set goals hoping the new year will feel better than the last. We want less overwhelm and more clarity, less friction and more flow. But if you look closely at the resolutions people make—get organized, be more productive, prioritize myself—they tend to point to a deeper desire: to feel better in our daily lives at work and at home. They want to feel more grounded, more energized and more connected.

Psychologists call this surge of motivation at the beginning of the year the fresh start effect because temporal milestones give us permission to reset expectations and imagine a better version of ourselves. But most resolutions fade by February. That happens in part because we try to change outcomes without changing the daily experiences that shape our motivation in the first place.

Meaning Fuels Motivation

In our multi-year research at the University of Pennsylvania, we uncovered something crucial: the biggest driver of sustained motivation and well-being at work isn't productivity, efficiency or better time management. It’s meaning. And meaning, we found, is profoundly shaped by the environment around us. Across hundreds of interviews with employees and leaders, we discovered that meaning at work rests on three essential experiences.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Psychology Today.