A New Year, Lived With Purpose
A New Year, Lived With Purpose
Happy New Year!
As I look back on 2025, I feel incredibly grateful. It was a year of growth, learning and such meaningful work, with many moments that reminded me why I love what I do. Stepping into 2026, I feel excited to be living with greater intention and purpose.
There is something powerful about the start of a new year. Not the pressure to reinvent ourselves, but the opportunity to pause and ask a deeper question.
How do I want to live this year?
And what really matters?
I have been reflecting on purpose, goals, and habits. Not as separate ideas, but as parts of the same conversation. What I keep coming back to is this. Meaningful change does not come from doing more. It comes from living with clarity and intention.
Purpose Comes Before Goals
In Life on Purpose, Victor Strecher makes an important distinction that has really stayed with me.
Goals are practical. They can motivate us, guide behaviour, and improve performance. In fact, research shows that setting higher goals often leads to better outcomes.
Purpose, though, is something different.
Purpose is a higher order intention rooted in deeply held values. It is aspirational rather than practical. It may never be fully achieved, and that is exactly what gives it meaning.
A clear sense of purpose helps us focus on what is important and question what is not. It acts as a compass. Goals then become expressions of that purpose, rather than demands we place on ourselves.
When goals are shaped by values and purpose, they feel meaningful rather than like another item on a ‘to do’ list.
“Purpose goes hand in hand with hope” Victor Strecher
Habits Are How Purpose Is Lived
This is where the work of Atomic Habits by James Clear, fits so beautifully.
James Clear reminds us that goals set direction, but it is our systems and habits that shape our days.
Real change happens in the small, repeatable actions we perform each day. You can want something deeply, like better health, more connection, more focus, but nothing shifts until the small choices that make up your days shift too.
“Every action is a vote for the type of person you want to become.” James Clear
Brushing your teeth, choosing real food, showing up for a walk or training, turning off screens early, how we respond to stress, these tiny votes compound, quietly turning who you are into who you want to become.
Over time, habits do not just influence outcomes. They shape identity. They quietly reinforce the kind of person we are becoming and the person we want to be.
Purpose sets the direction.
Goals give something to aim toward.
Habits are how it is lived.
Living With Purpose Is a Daily Practice
This idea is echoed in the work of Dr Michael Gervais, from Finding Mastery, who speaks about purpose not as something we find, but as something we practise.
Living with purpose does not mean constant striving or pressure. It means presence and alignment. It is a way of showing up in the small moments, the hard ones, and the joyful ones. Purpose is not proven by big moments. It is revealed in small decisions made consistently.
When we live this way, change feels less forced. We stop chasing outcomes and start building lives that feel coherent and intentional.
Letting Go of What Isn’t Ours to Control
One of the most helpful ideas I have reflected on in 2025 was from The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. To focus on my life’s purpose, I had to really let go of what other people thought and things I could not control.
Her message is simple, but powerful. Let them...
Let people be who they are. Let situations unfold. Let go of what you can’t control.
But just as importantly. Let me…
Let me choose how I respond.
Let me stay aligned with my values.
Let me care for myself without judgment.
There is something deeply purposeful about this. When we stop trying to manage everything, other people, outcomes, expectations, we free up energy to focus on how we live and who we are becoming.
Why This Matters for Habits and Change
This is why goal setting and resets can be so powerful when they are done well.
When goals are anchored to purpose, and supported by simple daily habits, they stop being about restriction or perfection. They become an opportunity to realign with the person we want to be.
Progress becomes something you live, not something you wait for.
That is where real momentum comes from.
An Invitation for the Year Ahead
As you step into this year, perhaps the invitation is not to demand more from yourself, but to get clearer.
What do you value most?
What kind of person are you becoming?
What small habits would support that life?
When purpose leads, goals inspire rather than pressure.
When habits support those goals, change becomes sustainable.
You are capable of more than you think. Not by pushing harder, but by living with intention.
That is how meaningful change begins.
To your best year yet!
Maree
Resources:
If you are looking for support as you set goals, build habits, and live with more intention this year, a few books I have found helpful are:
Life on Purpose by Victor Strecher, for clarifying a values-based purpose and creating a clear vision for the year ahead.
Atomic Habits by James Clear, for understanding how small systems shape daily life.
The First Rule of Mastery by Dr Michael Gervais, for living with presence and purpose as a daily practice, and
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, as a reminder to focus your energy where it truly belongs.
