RESOLUTION PRESSURE RELIEVED

One of the top lessons I learned this year was how to start and maintain a new habit. I used to drive myself a bit crazy the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve because I have long been a believer in New Year's resolutions, but I also tend towards indecisiveness. Each year as December rolled to an end, I just knew that if I failed to identify a potential new habit by January 1st, I would end up doing nothing at all.

I leaned heavily on having a firm start date and on making public pronouncements in order to bolster my willpower and help me to stick to my resolution. (Pride can be a powerful motivator!)

Honestly, it usually worked. I have a better than average track record for resolution follow through. 

But this year it is different. I now know better how my brain works and I can start a new habit at any time without concern over willpower. 

It feels almost like a superpower. 

This New Year's Eve, I have been mulling over how to introduce others to the process of habit formation - especially in regards to spiritual disciplines (like prayer, Scripture reading, and fasting) which are so crucial for spiritual formation but completely underutilized in American church culture.

It's a lot to think about, but I don't have to figure it out by January 1st. I will lean on God's timing. 

I wish you the very best in 2022!

*******

Here ends a year of writing daily. I'm guessing I will be back at it tomorrow night. It's a habit now.

33 MINUTES AND 33 SECONDS

In the back of my mind throughout the month of December, I was low-key dreading today. 

Today was the due date for my third 6-page paper - on a book comparing four different theological views on the Lord's Supper. 

Not only was the paper daunting, I knew from early in the month that life was going to get extra busy and the majority of my December classwork would still be waiting for me after Christmas day. 

I was right. When Sunday came, I still had 350 pages to read and a few smaller assignments ... and this paper.

Anyway, the good news is that I discovered a new "brain hack" to keep me on track today. I couldn't get myself started on my paper this morning as much as I tried. It felt very intimidating and my willpower was almost nonexistent. So I tried something I had heard suggested on a podcast recently.

I set the alarm on my phone for 33 minutes and 33 seconds and opened my book to start taking notes. When the alarm sounded, I would give myself permission to take some sort of little break.

It worked. Whereas I could not force myself to sit down and write an entire paper, I felt almost no resistance to sitting down to work for 33 minutes. When the alarm buzzed, I had accomplished part of my task and that felt good. I got some coffee and scrolled on my phone for a few minutes and then reset my alarm for another 33:33. 

And that's how my whole day went. One unforeseen advantage was that I soon began to accurately judge how much I could accomplish in 33 minutes and it gave me a better estimate of how much more of my day I would need to devote to the project. 

All in all, the day was not at all unpleasant. I had time to go for a  run and even take a short afternoon nap and a leisurely dinner. And the paper got edited and submitted shortly after 9:00 pm.

I need not have dreaded December 30th in the least.

POISON TREE

Like thousands of other motorists on a daily basis, each time I get off Interstate 65 and head toward Columbus, I soon pass a small house with a big white sign out front that never fails to make me sigh. 

The sign has to be at least five feet wide and three feet tall, and it has been permanently and prominently installed in the yard for all who pass by to see its message: "Out on a Limb Tree Service, Andrew B______ is a thief! Takes your money and runs!"

It looks professionally made. The homeowner sees it every morning and every night. He has to mow and weed-eat around it every summer. 

And I think it has been there for at least the past decade!

Now THAT is some world-class bitterness. 

It reminds me of the famous poem by William Blake:

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend; 

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe: 

I told it not, my wrath did grow. 

And I watered it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears: 

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 

Till it bore an apple bright. 

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine. 

And into my garden stole, 

When the night had veiled the pole; 

In the morning, glad, I see; 

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

You might dream of your hatred killing off your foe, but you're the one with a poisonous tree in your garden! 

The end of the year is a great time to put any lingering bitterness toward anybody aside. Don't carry any poison into 2022!

(And if you need help cutting down your poison tree, may I suggest Out on a Limb Tree Service - they have multiple 5-Star reviews on Yelp!) 

LESSONS LEARNED

I am still a few days short of completing my year of writing and publishing SOMETHING on this blog daily, but it is safe to assume I will successfully reach the finish line on Friday.

So I want to begin reflecting on what I have learned:

1) I am more opinionated than I realized.

2) Whether anyone else reads my words, writing daily has been a great benefit for ME, by helping to clarify my thinking. 

3) Publishing here has been an important part of the habit. It forces me to complete my thoughts and to edit them. 

4) I never experience "writer's block". 

5) Possible topics pop into my head randomly throughout the day, but if I don't immediately write an idea down, it is lost within minutes. 

6) My best editing decisions involve deleting words, sentences, or entire paragraphs. 

Now that it has become habit, I believe I will continue daily writing into the new year. It needs to evolve in some important way, but I am not yet sure how. 

NOT ALL BAD

To clarify after my post on Christmas day - I don't hate EVERY aspect of Christmas. I am not a complete Scrooge. I simply dislike the pressure our culture puts on everyone to attain some perfect Hallmark holiday celebration. And obviously the extreme commercialization of the whole thing is also more than annoying. 

And it all begins the day after Halloween.

Having said that, here are some pictures from our last 10 days or so of things I DID NOT hate:

PRIORITIES

Late this evening - long after I should already be in bed - I broke out my laptop at the kitchen table to write my daily post.

I had just opened up a blank page, but then Caleb came in for a drink of water. And then Samuel came home and decided to eat a second dinner.

Long story short, I chose having a conversation with my two college-aged sons over putting time and thought into writing a blog post. 

I am certain I made the right choice...

POST CHRISTMAS

And now begins my favorite part of Christmas: the end. 

It is officially OVER. 

And even though I am a bit Grinchy, I am not the sort to immediately sweep the house clean of all Christmas decorations. I kind of like the afterglow of Christmas more than the day itself. The goodwill and some of the festivities linger, but there is no longer the danger of being subjected to "Feliz Navidad" on the radio. And all of the self-imposed deadlines are past. 

It is time to cut way back on sugar consumption - actually consumption of all types - and start making New Year's resolutions. 

I am ready to move on. BUT, if there is one aspect of Christmas that I wish would continue daily throughout the new year, it would be this: the normalization of believers speaking publicly and unashamedly about Jesus, about the Scriptures, and about salvation. 

Wouldn't that be great?