The Similarities Between New Year Resolutions And Finding Purpose

At this point, the idea of setting New Year Resolutions is almost laughable. The statistics around them are remarkable in how ineffective they are. Yet year after year, people continue to think that a new year is a new opportunity to be the person they always wanted to be.

Another thing people talk about all the time is finding their purpose. They want to know exactly what it is they care about and want to stand for in the world. Their purpose is their legacy, the impact they’re going to make in their life, and how they’ll be remembered. 

The similarity between New Year Resolutions and finding your purpose is that they both take too extreme of an approach. The intentions people set for positive life change at the beginning of the year are often unrealistic, unsustainable, and so different from how things are now that they never had a chance. Treating your purpose as the single thing your entire life is meant to represent puts a lot of pressure on finding the one perfect thing before you have enough exposure to things to do that accurately.

Both fall victim to an all or nothing mindset, and for that reason both create chronic disappointment. 

As it relates to resolutions and purpose, the better approach is to start smaller. Do something that’s more minor in how it disrupts your life because you’re way more likely to actually incorporate those changes. A clean diet starts with improving what you have for breakfast. And similarly a global impact movement starts with some one-off volunteer opportunities and fundraisers. 

People think that small action is insignificant, so they push themselves to doing something larger. But that does more harm than good and makes it less likely you’ll reach the level of significance you originally wanted. It takes humility, but going small now in life change and world change does way more than going big later.

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