New Year, New Goals

Every year around December, I start getting the itch to read self-improvement books. In previous years, I’ve read through books such as the Cal Newport collection (Digital Minimalism, Deep Work, and So Good They Can’t Ignore You), Essentialism (Greg McKeown), and Getting Things Done (Tim Challies). I don’t read these books with the primary aim of hitting big lofty goals in the new year. Rather, books like these pop up on my radar because I start to feel disappointed at the end of the year with who I am and what I’ve done. I’m not nearly as disciplined as I wish myself to be; I’m not nearly as holy as I should be.

One thing that went spectacularly well in 2024 was running. I didn’t really have any goals at the beginning of the year; I was just training for Ragnar. There were many days in which I dragged myself to do the bare minimum (usually 4 miles in the dark after work).But over time, I slowly went from running 20 miles per week to 50 miles per week. This year, I ran my first marathon this year in 3:51. I ran a 5k under 20:00, a 10k under 45:00, and a half-marathon under 2:00. I’ve never been particularly fast – I was always one of the slowest runners on the XC and TF teams in high school. None of this was pre-planned. But this year, I really did see the compounding effects of running almost every day. And now, if I don’t run, I feel sluggish.

Now back to the topic of self-improvement books: This year, the book that piqued my interest was The Common Rule, by Justin Whitmel Earley. What struck me about this book was not that it was particularly well-written (some of the theological bits were strangely argued), nor was it the uniqueness of these suggestions (everyone recommends prayer, Bible reading, etc.), but rather the simpleness of the suggestions. Here are his eight habits, broken down by daily and weekly habits:

Daily: kneeling prayer at morning/midday/bedtime, one meal with others, one hour with phone off, scripture before phone

Weekly: one hour of conversation with a friend, curate media to four hours, fast from something for 24 hours, sabbath

There’s no big lofty goals here, like finishing the BIble in a year, or kicking my social media addiction. There’s not even a prescription for the amount of Bible reading that happens. These habits are mostly process in nature. And that really does resonate me, especially in light of my experience running last year.

So here is my version of the common rule, adjusted for my life and situation:

Daily: kneeling prayer at morning/bedtime (with Veronica), one hour with phone off, scripture (in Greek) before phone

Weekly: fast from something for 24 hours, Sabbath

My hope is that the compounding effects of these habits, even if it’s just 5 minutes of Bible reading in Greek, will result in great spiritual growth and transformation in 2025.