Resolutions, for some people, have become so mainstream that they still go through the reflection exercise with the expectation of giving up, which at the very least is absurd. Others who have more honest intentions set themselves up for failure by not clearly defining their execution plan. You should not waste time on the famous vague, short term “goals” if there’s no legitimate action plan to follow to propel yourself to success. Seriously, you do yourself a disfavor by self-promising year-end results that are not tied to a strategy to achieve them.

There’s a difference between interests and obsessive fixation over certain things. Both are good in most cases, you just have to be honest with yourself about the distinction between them so that the process of goal-setting is both objective and realistic. You will not achieve anything in excellence if it is done without a burning desire to be excellent.

If you've gone through the motions of setting resolutions without a clear path to achieving them, I want to challenge you to take the time to dig deep and determine those plans, ideas, bucket-list items that, however difficult achieving them may be, excite you to the point of sleeplessness or loss of appetite. Write them down and make them your reality. Tape that piece of paper to your fridge door, save it as your desktop background. Obsess over them, work on them day after day, and have a way to measure your progress, to know that you're either doing it right or have a way to correct yourself if you're doing it wrong. More than “goals”, these plans are quests, and quests are always worthy of relentless pursuit. I’ve done this pen-and-paper exercise multiple times for big things, the most memorable being my first international solo trip (where I crossed multiple country borders and volunteered as a child caretaker), summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro (which I approached as a 9-month physical preparation plan to reduce chances of failure), and more recently, the business start-up ideas I’m developing this year.

Where there’s purpose, there’s life, and life of abundant happiness. I invite you to stop looking for happiness and instead search for purpose in your actions. You might soon find these attributes of a full and meaningful life are intertwined and best experienced together… and the best part? It’s never too early or late to start living purposefully.

The year is still young, the possibilities untapped. Go define your quest(s) now.