I have some resolutions. I won't share them in great detail. But I ran across a piece of advice in shaping them the other day while listening to a runner's podcast.
If you have a weight-loss goal, or a running goal, or a Bible reading goal, or whatever... make the changes now that you would be willing to stick with for life.
Too often we set too many goals, or too ambitious goals, beyond our current ability or willpower. And we do okay for a couple of weeks. But because we are not enjoying ourselves, we give it up. We only and always do the things that we want to do. The key to life, I always say - ask my wife - is learning to enjoy the things that are good for you.
Another stolen piece of podcast advice - the most important workout is tomorrow's: do not work out so hard today that you won't want to workout tomorrow. In other words, six months of small incremental changes or commitment is better than two weeks of just killing it in the gym. A year of no more than one soda per day is better than two weeks of no soda, then a year-long fall of the soda cliff. A year's worth of reading two chapters of the Bible each day is far more helpful and healthy than a two-week sprint through the Pentateuch followed by forty days (or weeks) in the wilderness of distraction and discouragement and no Bible reading.
The only way we will be lastingly healthy is to learn to enjoy being healthy. I think we will be most successful when we start making manageable changes. Life - and also law school, I have been told - is more like a marathon than a sprint. So we should probably pace ourselves.
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