My Eight Things

Ask anyone.  I am not known for my consistency.  I am a whirring ball of ideas, intentions, attempts, and failures.  I even tried knitting a scarf once (and by "once", I mean "this year") and made it about two inches before I was over it.  It's now a very inadequate hot pad, which makes Caroline smile.

I've started something that kind of excites me.  I call it my "Eight Things."  There are eight things that I've written on a list, and post at my desk.  Things that I want to be consistent with and want to form habits around.  I used to think that if I got into a habit about something, it might be "legalistic" and I wouldn't actually get anything good out of it.  But as I was watering my plants one morning, I realized that giving life-sustaining nutrients to something that needs it, is not legalism - it's food.  Sometimes I eat out of legalism (that is, I know I should, even if I don't feel hungry) and sometimes I drink water out of legalism (before I'm thirsty, because I know I ought) but my consistency does not negate the benefit.  If I read my Bible, and mediate on a verse, I might not be hungry for it, but it will still do me good.

So I made a list of good things I should be doing every day, in no particular order.

1) Read your Bible
2) Find a verse to mediate on throughout the day.
3) Spend time in prayer
4) Pray for Caroline
5) Exercise
6) Drink water
7) Journal
8) Eat breakfast.

There are times that I think that any kind of routine or habit will be completely abandoned in three days, never to be seen again.  But it's been eight days, and I'm still doing my "Eight Things" every morning.  If that doesn't sound like a lot, the exchange rate for "Stephen keeping up with something" to "anyone else keeping up with something" is about 4 to 1, so I'm on fire!

I've been able to repeat this each day, because I think to myself, "treat today like it's the blueprint you want every other day to be based on."  You only live one day at a time anyway, so this is a perfect model.  What kind of habits do you want to form in your life?  What are you going to do today to achieve that habit?  That is the only question that really matters - what are you going to do today?  Yesterday is as far away from you as the beginning of time - and when tomorrow gets here, it turns out, it's just today.  So what habit, today, are you going to form?  Ask yourself that question every morning.