Forget the Resolution! Set a Challenge!
Resolutions are boring. I resolve to behave better this year, blah, blah, blah… This is a whole new YEAR we’re talking about, not just the turn of an hourglass.
What’s so great about a resolution anyway? Sure, it’s an opportunity to start anew, to take a stab at fixing something that you think is broken about yourself, to be better.
But why do we want to be better? Is it just to feel good about ourselves? Or are we trying to accomplish something greater in our lives than self-satisfaction?
Maybe you want to lose weight, or gain muscle, or workout more, or write more, or become financially independent, or eat more local food, or get a promotion, or learn a new language.
All attainable goals, great things for anyone to do. Which is fine. If you are aiming for mediocrity.
What we need – what you need – is something epic, something grand, something game-changing, something that matters to you specifically, something for which you in particular were destined. Your bliss, to use the terminology of Joseph Campbell.
When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else. – Joseph Campbell
You don’t need another resolution. You need a challenge.
So, here is my call to action: instead of setting yourself a New Year’s resolution, find something in your life, your world, or your community that needs a hero. Find that thing that matters to you, that you are scared of, the dragon that needs slaying, in your life or others’.
And be the hero that is needed.
- Think it’s a shame that the food in your kids’ schools is unhealthy? Start making phone calls!
- All up in arms over the unfair treatment of women? Rally the sisters!
- Can’t comprehend how people can so mindlessly destroy their environment? Time to do some educating (I plan to study Ecopsychology, so I can understand exactly how to convince people of the value of the natural world, and then start leading wilderness trips).
- Horrified by the reality of people trapped in bodies they don’t know how to move? Time to start showing people a new way!
- Saddened by people afraid to go after their bliss? Start living yours.
I guarantee you that you will improve yourself in the process. To make those goals happen, you’ll find that you need to become the best you can be, in all areas of life. A healthy body supports a passionate soul. A lucid mind empowers a shining spirituality. The skills, the self-improvement, the education, the money, the financial independence–it all arises naturally in service of a higher goal
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. – Joseph Campbell
These are small steps in the larger scheme of your life, but keep your eye on the ultimate goal – the WHY, to reference Simon Sineck – and it will draw you towards it with more urgency than you could ever provide on your own.
Perhaps you’re scared of failure. Good. That’s how you know this thing really matters. That’s how you know you care.
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. – Joseph Campbell
We have enough people making resolutions. We need people taking on the big challenges in the world and taking up the mantle of greatness.
So, forget the resolution. Aim higher. Aspire to greater. Be something more.
This is the year you find your bliss. This is the year you finally drive through everything in the way and follow it. This is the year that you become the hero of your own myth.
Lead the Way.
- (**
Post your challenge to the comments.
Photo credit: Anna Pusack
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