Pick a Growth Metaphor for Your New Year's Resolution
An Upstream Strategy for a sticky Behavior Change Project
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the new issue of Culturescapes! As we embark on a new year, some of us start working on our New Year's resolutions. In these mini personal rejuvenation projects, we appreciate the valuable strategies of the fresh-start effect, temptation bundling, and others (see my previous post). This year, however, I would like to explore a more upstream strategy: We could shift our behaviors more effectively by crafting our life stories through the metaphors we tell ourselves.
Let's dive in!
When you spend long enough time with a sports fan, you hear them making strong analogies between life and that particular sport. For instance, a soccer-loving friend once told me, "Football is just like life: sometimes you control the field and still can't score, other times you pull off a miraculous goal against all odds." I was struck when my baseball-loving friend made a similar remark, this time about baseball. This commonality reminded me how powerful metaphors can be in shaping our life story and, thus, our everyday lives.
But there's a second, often under-appreciated ingredient in making metaphor come alive: ritual. Metaphors guide our life stories; rituals help us enact that life story.
Why Metaphors Matter
Metaphors are more than poetic indulgences; they're mental prototypes that color how we see the world. If you see life as a football game, you might thrive on strategy and competition. If you see life as a maze, brace for twists turns, and surprise dead ends. Over time, these metaphors become daily scripts—defining how we act and reinforcing who we are.
When we want to change a specific behavior, these metaphors could also get in the way. They could kill that fresh start effect pretty soon. Thus, when changing a new behavior, we need metaphors reinforcing positive emotions and mindsets to follow through with our intention. I will call them growth metaphors. For instance, "my life is like a garden" and "my life is a hiking trail" could give you the superpowers you need when your fresh start effect and motivation run out. However, adopting a new metaphor alone isn't enough. You need to ground it in action—this is where rituals come in. A ritual provides the tangible behavior that roots your metaphor in your life.
Let's now turn these two concepts into more actionable ideas. As you strategize, your behavior change project. First, consider picking a new metaphor for yourself. Then, come up with a few ritual ideas for your metaphor:
Choosing a New Metaphor
1. Identify Your Current Narrative
Ask yourself: "What metaphor do I typically use to describe my life?" Maybe you say, "I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel," or "I'm at a crossroads." Please write it down to make it visible to you.
2. Test a Replacement
Explore alternatives. If your life feels like a maze, try saying, "Life is an adventure." Suddenly, every dead end becomes uncharted territory waiting to be navigated.
3. Align with Your Goals
Make sure your new metaphor supports the habits you want to adopt. If you aim to be more creative, perhaps "My life is a blank canvas" is the perfect fit—it encourages experimentation and color.
4. Connecting Metaphor and Ritual
Metaphor = A guiding story or mental model you choose to live by.
Ritual = A symbolic, repeated action anchoring this story in your daily life.
Think of a metaphor as the blueprint and a ritual as the construction—the hands-on practice that makes your blueprint a reality.
Design A Ritual for Your Metaphor
1. Pinpoint a Key Action
Could you reflect on your chosen metaphor? If "Life is a mountain bike trail," what daily or weekly action captures the spirit of uphill climbs and adrenaline-packed descents? For instance, you could plan a brief journaling ritual each evening: "Where was I climbing today, and where did I get to coast?"
2. Keep It Simple
Rituals don't need to be elaborate. If "Life is a garden," a morning moment to note one thing you're nurturing—connects your daily routine to the metaphor of growth and care.
3. Pair Ritual with Habit
Align your new ritual with an existing part of your routine. If "Life is a blank canvas," you might sketch something quick in a journal right after brushing your teeth. Consistent practice cements the connection between metaphor and action.
4. Reflect and Evolve
As you try out your ritual for a reasonable amount of time, check in regularly with yourself and see if it is serving you well. Are you feeling more aligned with your metaphor? If not, adjust or try a new ritual. This iterative process ensures your metaphor-ritual duo remains fresh and impactful.
Examples of Metaphor-Ritual Combinations
Life is a Mountain Bike Trail
Ritual: Close each day by jotting down your "uphill struggles" and "downhill thrills" in a small notebook.
Why: You'll start to see every challenge as part of the ride—and every success as a well-earned burst of momentum.
Life is a Garden
Ritual: Water an actual plant or herb each morning while thinking of one personal "seed" (habit, idea) you're tending.
Why: It's a tangible reminder that growth happens with consistent care.
Life is a Blank Canvas
Ritual: Doodle or journal a single image or word daily, even if it's just a scribble.
Why: Each small mark reminds you that you're continually creating your life story.
Your Challenge: Combine Metaphor & Ritual
As you plan your New Year's resolutions, pick one new metaphor and design a simple, repeatable ritual that embodies it. Think of this as a personal "design prototype": try it for a week, reflect on how it feels, and refine it as necessary. The goal is strengthening the connection between your mental blueprint (metaphor) and your lived experience (ritual).
What I am reading, listening
I am enjoying Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave. Three things I love about the book are its historical context and its treatment of AI as a lineage of human invention and ingenuity. It also is honest about the unintended consequences and the eye-opening potential of technology shifting disciplines and categories as we know them—go read Chapter 6. I might do a separate post about its critical ideas.
A heart-warming Coldplay tribute video to Mary Pippin star Dick Van Dyke I just discovered; it’s called All My Love.
That’s a wrap for this Culturescapes letter. Until next time, take care of yourself and your loved ones! Meanwhile, I'd love to hear how you integrate your chosen metaphor into daily life—and how it helps you design a life that resonates with your goals and dreams.