The first thing

Compared to the general population, I’m probably pretty good at adhering to my New Years’ Resolutions. Heck, the fact that this is a topic in August for me has to say something.

That said, I’m far from perfect. I have six categories of resolutions (e.g., health, financial, career, etc.) and two goals per category each year. To focus on each goal every single day would be quite difficult. But the key is progress, not perfection.

Something I’ve started doing recently is focusing on my resolutions as the first thing I do. For example, one of my goals is to learn the basics of Western philosophy. It has been a struggle all year because reading Plato’s Apology or anything by John Locke before bed requires more cognitive capacity than I have at 10:30pm.

So, I’ve started doing 10 minutes of reading at 8:00am as I begin working, then read about five minutes’ worth of SparkNotes or some summary of what I just read to reinforce the material. A quick 15-minute read doesn’t eat into my day much but gives me the satisfaction of checking a box on one of my objectives for the year. Even if the rest of the day is a tough, I made progress in my “learning” bucket of goals.

My morning routine now consists of practicing my Spanish and reading a chapter of the Bible before the kids are even out of bed. I get my running in on Saturday mornings before I do anything else because I will find, on average, 6,749 reasons not to run throughout the course of the day. Running requires me to override ever instinct that God gave me not to run. But I find that I feel better the rest of the day simply by accomplishing any of these things early.

Whatever your priorities are, make sure they are your first thing.