An aspiration is different from a resolution because it doesn’t die after a failed attempt

3 min read

But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to… 

-1 Thessalonians 4:10-11

Welcome to DOTR’s first post of the new year. Like you, we’re hopeful about the possibilities ahead of us.

As we think about the areas where we want to grow and develop this year as people and as Christ-followers, it might be helpful to think about the difference between a resolution and an aspiration.

Some of us haven’t bothered to make any resolutions because we’ve tried it in the past and found the lack of success frustrating. If we didn’t even manage to keep our resolution through January, much less the whole year, why would we put ourselves through the same sense of defeat again?

But here’s where the difference between a resolution and an aspiration comes into play. Even when you’ve dropped a resolution, you can still aspire to attain the goal in the future.

Just because you didn’t uphold it this time does not mean you don’t still have the desire to do so. Neither does it mean you won’t get another opportunity. That New Year’s resolution may have stalled out, but the aspiration is still very much alive.

More Forgiving

By definition, an aspiration is “a strong desire to achieve something high or great.” It means that you have an ambition for something in your heart and you are striving in that particular direction.

For example, you might aspire to be: more kind, more spiritual, more patient, more generous, more disciplined, or more influential.

Yet, if you are aspiring to do something, three things are implied: (1) that you are not fully there yet, (2) that it’s going to take a while to get there, and (3) that there will probably be some failure on the way.

But the beautiful thing about an aspiration is that you’re not on a deadline. It waits for you. It lingers in your heart even when your internal critic and everyone else is saying it’ll never happen. While an unfulfilled resolution will belittle you, an unrealized aspiration whispers, “Don’t give up, you’ll get there.”

Simply put, aspirations are more supple and forgiving than resolutions. They allow space for the process of becoming more like Jesus. That’s why we need them.

Resolutions have their place, but when resolution fails, aspirations remain.

To what are you aspiring this year? With God’s help, may all your aspirations come true.

It’s a new day year with God. Run with it.