New Years Resolutions

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in London. There are 30 people sitting around me. 10 have New Years resolutions.

Why when it comes to New Year is there a renewed sense of purpose. ‘This year will be different, this year I will achieve X, Y or Z’

But more importantly why does this sense of purpose usually last no longer than 7 days.. As humans surely we’ve evolved the capacity to stick to things that will improve the part of ourselves we are most unhappy about, our weight, careers, relationships..

There are two factors in play here:

1. Lack of purpose

We tend to live reactive lives, responding to things on the spur of the moment, ending up in careers and relationships that don’t make much sense (cognitive dissonance aside) but usually serve a basic purpose.

2. Societal conditioning

• We get things without doing anything
• We use TV, alcohol, video games and porn as an easy fix
• We chase material goods at the expense of our dreams

By realising your sense of purpose you are putting the framework in place to overcome anything society can throw at you. If you have a purpose, you will work hard to achieve it, if you have a purpose you will realise a sense of ongoing fulfilment that can’t be trumped by an easy fix, if you have a purpose you realise material goods are a means to an end.

A New Years resolution is a cowards excuse for why they haven’t.

A purpose is a mans way of defining why they can.