Do you feel you barely make it through the day and week throughout 2024? Is it challenging to feel excitement about what is ahead? Do you have feasible goals and steps to take to get there? With the new year upon us, change may feel possible. There are infinite possibilities of goals for the year, a few of which you may have tried previously for your New Year’s resolution. But continuing with resolutions and goals without finding purpose and actively practicing can make goals easily defeating and allow old habits to fill their place. Finding purpose can increase our motivation to maintain our goals and feel satisfaction with how we live our lives. You can find purpose in how we spend our time, who we love, what we create, and what we accomplish. The purpose is different for each of us; we all have different aspirations.
Low purpose has been linked to depression. It has been found that having meaning in life can help deter the severity of anxiety and depression. Purpose helps us create behavioral activation, an evidence-based approach to treating depression. Purpose can also help us recover from adverse events. We cannot prepare for everything that life may throw at us. It proves that purpose can help us have a healthier response to adverse situations that may happen to us. Finding purpose can provide a sense of fulfillment and help with our mental and emotional health, preparing us for the unknown.
Motivation is vital to helping us move toward purpose. Internal and external forces impact our progress toward goals. Weighing out cost vs. benefit and adding positive reinforcements or removing possible punishments is important to consider when pursuing purpose. When we can build our motivation to live more purposefully, our purpose can, in turn, increase our motivation to keep moving forward.
When considering the benefits of finding a purpose, work toward what will add more meaning to life. I recommend these ten tips for living life with more purpose in 2025.
- Prioritize
There are many things that we may want to put more energy into, change, and develop this upcoming year. Intentionally prioritizing how you are spending your time, energy, and resources can impact your satisfaction with your day-to-day life. We all have multiple obligations, whether we put them on ourselves or others demand them from us. Start making a list of what you need to prioritize, what you want to prioritize, and what you can cut out.
- Lean into discomfort
Living purposefully does not come without sacrifice, whether working harder on your goals or spending more time and effort. It could also include removing some other things you will have less time for, whether that’s mindless scrolling, drinking less, or limiting time doing things that do not contribute to your well-being and goals. Change is uncomfortable; achieving what we want may require learning something new, putting yourself out there, or decreasing unhealthy habits. Discomfort increases tolerance, putting us in vulnerable situations where we can grow and discover something new and worthwhile.
- Acknowledge your barriers
In a natural time of change, it is easy to dream big and think of everything we want. What is actually achievable? What is more difficult to achieve? Factor what costs are: time, money, emotional, mental, and physical capacity. What habits do you have that would get in the way of moving toward purpose?
- Self-care
To live purposefully, we need to take care of our basic needs. This takes energy, strength, and consistency. It comes at a price, physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially, and it takes time. Make sure that your self-care and needs are being met. It is vital to continue caring for your body and not overextending yourself. Eat regularly, get 7-8 hours of sleep, take breaks, maintain hygiene, and continue to do things that will fill your cup.
- Gratitude
Once a day in 2025, acknowledge something that went right or even just something that did not get in your way. In even the most challenging of days, be benignly grateful for your safety, what nourished you that day, your health, your support systems, and what you learned. Positive affirmations are a great way to acknowledge what you like about yourself.
- Build and follow a routine.
Consistency is key; routines provide a structure that we can rely on. The structure also creates accountability. When you continuously show up for yourself and what is important, this can build a framework for getting all you want done. Start small: What are things that have to be done? Personal hygiene, going to work or school, daily chores. Then, add structured time to train, learn, be with others, or be productive, which builds our sense of purpose.
- Reflection
Reflection is a way to process what has happened, how we feel about the future, and how we manage our present. It acknowledges your thoughts and feelings. You can reflect through journaling. Journaling regularly, daily, or even less frequently can be a positive method to understand what’s going on mentally and emotionally. Talk therapy is another process through which we can reflect with a mental health clinician who can provide an unbiased perspective.
- Maintain physical health
Exercising at least three times a week, eating nutritious meals, taking medication as prescribed, and getting routine medical visits all contribute to maintaining physical health. Neglecting physical health can affect mental and emotional capacity.
- Maintain social support
Purpose can be about making time for others in your life, or it can be more internal. Social support helps us get through adversities and can also create more purpose. Make sure to spend time with those you can talk to and rely on. We all need others. Others make finding purpose more meaningful and can motivate us to see it through.
- Create a vision board
Organize your ideas and goals to live with more purpose. You can do this physically or virtually, finding inspiration from people you admire. A vision board can inspire us, create hope and possibility, and allow us to use it throughout the year to look back on and remind us to keep up our motivation. Creating a vision board with friends can also provide more ideas and excitement.
