The love, wishes, and blessings we share with our loved ones after New Year mass, parties or at home, as we move into 2025 are always special and energising. In addition, we are bombarded with various New Year messages on social media. One rare but valuable wish is related to a New Purpose for the New Year. 

As I reflected on this, the question that came up was, is it a new purpose or a renewed purpose? If the concept of ‘purpose’ is perceived synonymously with ‘goals’ or if the reference is to the purpose for the year, then it could be considered a new purpose.  However, if we look at ‘purpose’ as a life-purpose, a reason for being, we look at it as a renewed purpose. 

I propose that finding life-purpose is a life-long process and our life experiences inform us about the relevance and/or the need to renew our life-purpose. Being purposeful is conducting ourselves with decent human values, ensuring we contribute to the flourishing of life using our inherited and acquired talent. 

Stepping into the new year is an excellent time to reflect on how purposeful we were during the last year. It is asking the questions: how did I contribute to the flourishing of life, and did I live with decent human values? It is about asking if we took daily steps to improve our spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical and financial resources so that we develop our capacity to be more purposeful. This reflection will help renew life-purpose and values for 2025. 

Wishing you a purposefully prosperous New Day – Every Day of the New Year.

Ranjan De Silva, PhD