How to Think About the Times and See the Big Picture

 

The First Principles Method of Evaluation

I listened to Mark Steyn’s weekly Q&A just an hour ago. Subscribers write in and ask him questions about anything in the news. The subject of countless lawsuits, Mark often finds himself in the news. A lot of listener (and reader) questions are directed to him. Since he’s covered the English speaking world, his range of knowledge is quite broad. He doesn’t just feed information to his listeners like he’s reading from an encyclopedia. He’s a bit like Rush Limbaugh, his focus is always toward larger trends that can be seen in smaller ones. He calls this philosophy, First Principles. It’s the same idea I had when naming my blog. Here's how I defined it few years ago.

Thinkers Philosophy

I’ll sum it up like this, you have to understand the underlying philosophy of current issues or you won’t know how to think about them. For instance, free speech is fundamental to life in a democratic system. Laws designed to curb speech are unjust. I wouldn’t want a communist in America not to have the right to voice his opinion, even though I loathe communism and find it evil. But I don’t get to decide who can speak and who can’t.  

 In the same way, Mark always focuses on the big picture in the world. In this case, a mafia like federal government that’s trampling citizen rights. He’s tough on the Constitution ‘wavers’ who think our founding document protects them from assault. The whole apparatus of government, the deep state, is playing by its own rules and going around the official process.

Chaos and Disorder

The Constitution doesn’t mean anything if whole departments operate with impunity. The justice department comes to mind as the most egregious one. But you could make a case that any one of the official departments use ‘work arounds’ for their immediate needs. Matt Taibbi exposed a lot of these ‘work around’ tactics when Elon Musk gave him access to Twitter’s email database. The FBI (primarily) was using Twitter like its own digital secret police. That’s the larger point of what the civilized world is facing. “Enemies” like the J6ers or Covid skeptics get treated like domestic terrorists. Many are being locked up for years, after being held without a trial for years, over “trespassing”. While in blue cities the district attorneys refuse to charge violent offenders. Presumably to create chaos and control people who want to live free.

With this idea of looking at the larger picture, Steyn doesn’t get wrapped up in the minutiae of legalisms.

Because the legal rationale is beside the point. Soviet police chief Lavrentiy Beria famously said “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime”. Legal arguments become silly in a world where citizens are locked up for years for entering the Capital to take pictures.

 The West is committing suicide by allowing corruption to fester for too long. Legitimate voices are being silenced in this era of widespread censorship. It’s the so-called liberal West that’s doing it too. That’s maybe the biggest change in my lifetime. The Soviet bloc countries were supposedly basket cases led by tyrants. The West, and mostly America was the land of the free. But the important thing to remember is, without a fight we’ll lose our way of life. Mark is a pessimist but sees the issues clearly. I refuse to be without hope. I might not know the status of the future, but I believe in God and His plan for me. I do think dark days are coming for America in the near term.

Conclusion

But it will also be a wonderful time of hope and restoration. New souls with find the Kingdom, wayward Christians will return to God. In the same way that First Principles types (like Steyn) can draw on small incidents to find a larger context, Christ draws on the impersonal to focus on the personal. Financial trouble can force you to evaluate your life the same way a health event can. Suddenly, spiritual things can be seen in stark relief again the world’s system. The world a lot of us grew up in isn’t coming back. The future seems bleak right now because we’ve come through a very wealthy period in history. We mostly had a strong legal system that respected private property, speech and religion. The federal government was smaller relative to what it’s become. I don’t mean in the number of employees who drew a paycheck either. I’m talking about reach. Here is why I’m not worried long term. God is just. Those who fear Him live according to His ways. It stands to reason those who don’t fear Him don’t live according to His ways. They’ll answer to God eventually. Now that’s a First Principle.

When we surrender to Christ we can never lose. Even if we don’t know where we’re going, we get to find out. In a way that’s kind of exciting.

Good Friday, Easter and the Future of Church in America

Easter Sunday and Christianity in America

It’s Easter on the last day of March. That's early this year. My mom went to see her grandkids in Texas. I went to my Dad’s for lunch and caught up with my sister who's in town for the weekend. Since I’m a volunteer at church, I couldn’t head off to Texas. I probably wouldn’t have anyway. My marathon is less than a month away and I need most of Saturday morning to get in shape. Yesterday was a long day of training before I came home and slept for 2 hours. 

Lazy? Perhaps, but it felt so good to crash after a hot shower. I didn’t care.

Good Friday

The night before was Church on the Move’s Good Friday service. That’s an important one for tone and remembrance. It’s almost as important as Easter itself, the pain and suffering Christ endured must be juxtaposed with His glorious resurrection.

It's appropriate to be emotionally wrung out after the ceremony. I emphasize “ceremony” and not sermon because Good Friday should be a heavy day. Christians understand how the story finishes of course. Jesus overcomes death and the grave for all time. He makes a spectacle of Satan’s plans. He invites us to share the good news of salvation with the whole world. It’s more than a heroic story told and retold for generations; it’s THE story. Christ is Risen. He is coming back. We can encourage each other in this truth. But we need the solemnity of Good Friday to tee up the joyous celebration of Easter. It helps us understand what’s at stake and understand the human betrayal and suffering of our Lord.

I offered to help with communion. Instead of the usual wafer and juice in a sealed package they opted for real bread and juice cups near the front of the sanctuary. Everyone lined up down the aisles and shuffled to the front. Not the most efficient way perhaps, but they wanted a more memorable experience. This way, communion is the last piece of the evening and also sticks in your memory. Good Friday is about the crucifixion--Easter, the resurrection.

Communion

 My job was to light the candles and take away the empty trays when the cups ran out, an easy task for the most part. One guy in line threw me off my game a bit however. He grabbed the top tray and handed it to me. It still had full cups so I was confused. Then he grabbed the next tray and tried to hand that to me. I was even more confused. What was he doing with the trays?

His only job was to take a cup of juice, grab a piece of bread and go back to his seat. This was too much for him. The woman in line right behind asked if he needed help. Again, we aren’t exactly sure what he needed help with. Eventually he answered that he did. I sensed her frustration as well. She grabbed him a cup and placed it beside him so he could move on. I restacked the trays, quietly laughing to myself about the absurdity of the situation. Other than that minor hiccup, it was an emotional evening. Easter was more typical, a hopeful sermon laced with warning about sin and death. A lot of hands went up to receive Christ as Lord and Savior.

The next day I attended the Saturday service. It seems a little like jumping ahead in the retelling of the story. Jesus rose on Sunday after all. The technicality isn’t that important, what matters is the message.

The Future Faithful

I often wonder if Easter service will look different in the future. This is more a thought exercise in what “church” might mean in general. Will we see large churches in America (megachurches) 10 years from now? Will persecution in this country affect the way we gather? I can’t help thinking that major changes are coming for the country and the American Church, to say nothing about the rest of the world. People of all walks of life are starting to realize the corruption at the heart of a lot of institutions. I don’t mean to say that all churches are corrupt. Too many though have traded the truth for a lie; they’ve placed cultural trends and beliefs above Scripture.

But I can see a wave of churches refusing to go along with government mandates that inhibit their message. The communist party in China allows churches to exist if they register with the government. Even the Pope made a handshake agreement with the CCP to keep the Catholic Church operational. I can imagine a similar event here. Teach this and not that or we revoke your tax exempt status. That won’t be enough. They’ll have to start arresting preachers and dragging them through court. What looks like a death knell for the church will lead to a firestorm of converts. This is traditionally how the church grows, in persecution. We’ll have left the 4 walls and come up with new ways to reach the lost.

Conclusion

What sounds like an ominous warning of darker days can turn out to be the transition the church needs. In its current static (and wealthy) state it can only grow so much. The church is the people of God after all and not a building or a congregation on a particular Sunday morning. Wherever we are, God is in the midst. Just like Good Friday, when all looks lost and hope is nearly forgotten, Sunday shows up. The Church’s best days are still in front of us.

He is Risen. Spread the Word.

 

Working Through Life's Occasional Malaise

 

 Hard Work is a Foundational Principle

Do I still appreciate writing or has my lax schedule forced me to rethink it altogether?

It’s a chore rather a love anymore. I write less because I’m studying for a personal trainer’s exam. More days of the week are consumed with at least an hour and a half in the evening spent reading and answering questions in a study guide. Writing is suddenly my neglected skill but I wouldn’t trade the current situation. I like learning about the human body, exercise, nutrition and strength. My obligation to both my personal and business websites, has taken a beating. There’s no sense complaining about it. The adjustment is necessary for my part time job prospects. But I do feel like I’ve neglected my first love.

Appreciate the Process?

It's possible that I’m feel guilty about not being interested in a lot of the things I used to be interested in. That’s a different kind of guilt. How many times have I written about losing interest in a topic? Running and scripture are about the only 2 things I consistently write about anymore. I’ll put other things up but it seems obligatory. I needed to get this week’s quota of writing on the site, so here it goes. A lot of good writing starts out as a freeform exercise so I’m not knocking it. But I don’t comment on politics as much. I don’t really know what’s going on and that’s a difficult thing to admit. How much in the news (mainstream or alternative) is true and how much is false? No idea. I clicked on a link to a story about Covid, or maybe the vaccine. I got a few hundred words in and thought, “nope…don’t care”. That happens a lot now. Not only on Covid stuff but on a whole catalogue of current events.

 Sports are barely on the radar as a topic of interest. It’s tough to get jazzed about entertainment when so much of life in this country is looking very grim. I told myself I wouldn’t bleed out despair in this post but some of it is unavoidable.

Appreciate Entertainment?

When it comes to TV and movies, I don’t spread my wings much. Most nights I tune in for an hour before going to bed. It’s either serial shows that I’ve seen already (Seinfeld, Cheers) or long running dramas (Blue Bloods) that have been on the air for years. That last window of time before I go to bed is my zone out time. I don’t want to get creative or try something new. I’m officially winding down. The only topics I want are the easily digestible, light comedy or formulaic detective shows. I haven’t done any reviews lately because again, it’s tough to get jazzed about entertainment. Not to mention, sports and film are so painfully woke I don’t have the energy to wrestle with it, hence the old shows.

I’ll admit that a lot of this recent malaise and reluctance to write is very attitude driven. It’s like that unfinished part of your spare bedroom you’ve been meaning to work on but never do. The best you can manage is to walk through, look at the walls and take some mental notes about colors and furniture. Then you sit down with bowl of Breyers mint chocolate chip and complain about how expensive the project will be.

Appreciate the Wins?

At some point it’s just laziness. It’s more than laziness though; there’s a mental fatigue that comes from being overwhelmed by outside influences. That’s not an excuse but it does get closer to the problem. When nothing in life is going right, everything is a struggle. From finances to relationships and physical or mental strain, creativity gets pushed out and indifference takes over. Writers have to write, struggles and all. No one gets a break to sit one out. No one gets to take a month off and ignore the bills or eat what they like every day. We can’t tell our employer “Just, No” for a week and expect to keep our job. Life is crushing at times and we have to learn how to juggle events, work projects and family time. It’s true for writers and it’s true for everyone.

But we appreciate the growth because it’s hard. We value hard won victories. From a slight increase in jogging pace to a smaller waist size after a full season of running. Because what’s the alternative? We can’t keep avoiding hard tasks. Humans are meant to build and increase and grow. Not only our physical bodies but also our mental faculties. Learning anything requires foundational principles from which to build on top of. But just as easily we can ignore the building phase and opt for an easier existence. There’s also a habit-forming quality to avoiding difficulties as well. It’s not hard to imagine what this looks like. Take the easy path every time and life is difficult in a whole new way. You create a different set of problems when you’re a slave to the easy life.

Conclusion

Problems might be a part of life but I’m a problem solver. That’s a statement of intent more than a recognition of an absolute truth. I might be doing less writing these days but I’m not putting it aside entirely. It’s the clearest method I’ve found for problem solving and communicating an idea. Not to mention, it’s cathartic because it allows me to explore my thoughts (crackpot theories?) in a pseudo-intellectual way. For now though, it’s back to studying.

Daylight Savings: Stay or Go?

 

Must Be Daylight Savings Time, Again

This week was different from the previous in one big way, I was very tired. Daylight savings time is the likely culprit. If it’s affected me like this in previous years I don’t remember. I wouldn’t have assumed my lethargy was related to the yearly spring ahead campaign on my own. Someone at work mentioned that they weren’t sleeping well this week because the time change was “killing them”. I thought about that. My week was pretty rough too. I came home completely drained on Tuesday after work. Wednesday, the sluggish bug bit me again. Thursday, I jogged with my marathon group but didn’t have enough energy to go as far. Friday felt a little more regular, maybe I’m over it.

An hour of lost sleep shouldn’t matter that much but apparently it does. Nothing else was different. The weather has been in the low 60s. For March that’s incredible. I can’t blame it for causing some drowsy spell every afternoon. Daylight Savings makes sense because nothing else does. It’s likely that I notice it more now that I’ve been studying my personal training material in the evening. To study anything you need to really focus. The material isn’t technical, but most of the terms and concepts are new. When I’m sleepy I read the same sentence multiple times or let my mind wander. During review it takes me 3 or 4 times to understand what I just read. Normally I can power through. This week was nearly a waste where homework is concerned.

Like most things in America, no one agrees on what the best system is. Before 1966 there were a hodgepodge of rules on DST. No national legislation existed. Even as late as 1972, a few states still didn’t observe it. Arizona is still the lone holdout. That’s on brand for them anyway. They’re the proverbial last old coot refusing to sell their shack along the proposed railway line. Everyone else made a deal and moved on. AZ 'ain't budgin'. Some states have already passed legislation making DST a permanent feature going forward. Florida is in this camp. The problem is they can’t put it into effect until Congress amends the current law, which is the one requiring us to change the time twice per year.

Last Sunday, a handful of us went outside to play pickleball. Normally we play in the gym. As it turns out, pickleball is quite popular in our corner of the city. It’s a trend all over the country, I’m late to the party. New people join the ranks every week pushing court wait times to 20 minutes and longer. But with the later sun we can finally use the outdoor courts again. Naturally the talk turned to daylight savings, everyone had an opinion. Most like DST despite the hangover like week or so where you feel like a zombie after work. One woman preferred the standard time. The reason, the sun is up early just before we spring the clocks ahead. They liked the early sun, the rest of us prefer it late.

That’s basically the way it shakes out nationally too. Most favor keeping DST as the permanent solution and not switching back to standard, but only 31%. The next 21% want to keep changing the clocks the way we do. Only 19% want to keep the standard time as permanent and the rest, 28%, are basically undecided. Those numbers aren’t likely to make a dent where Congress is concerned. We’ll probably be stuck with the current system for a while. My preference would be to keep DST all the time and not have to worry about changing the clocks anymore. But it’s not one of those things that raises my blood pressure. I’m used to the current way of doing things and I’ll be fine with it going forward.

My big gripe would be the axial tilt of the earth. As long as the earth tilts away from the sun we’ll have winter. Winter, also known as more darkness, isn’t changing anytime soon. I'll always want more sunshine, even when I can't have it. Since God put the earth in it’s orbit we won’t be changing that either. Seasons come and go. There is a time for everything after all. Whether you like it or not, we all seem to manage. We lose sleep for a while and then we adjust. 

Yard Work is an Exercise in Problem Solving

 

Early Spring Mow and Grow

Yard work is back. We’ve had an unusually warm Winter so far. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get any cold weather though. January was the typical windy, blustery month it’s always been. The coldest run I did this year was also the coldest I’ve ever done, 8 degrees. Before that I might have run in the low 20s. Never less than that. We all assumed the cold days would stretch well into the spring. But after a few warm afternoons in February and a handful of mild days, it’s looking like an early Spring.

Of course, that also means early lawn mowing and early yard work.

I fired up the mower today and pushed it over a smattering of clover and other various weeds. I spent more time pulling weeds and cleaning up leaves from last fall. It’s always easiest after a heavy rainfall. Friday was our rain day. Saturday was a lot like Sunday weather wise, but I was too sore after my run to tackle yard work. The reason it’s so much easier after a rainfall, the soft ground makes digging effortless. Weeds pull up with ease, shovels sink a lot deeper into the earth. I planted some daisies that won’t come up again till next year. They’ve been sitting in a bucket waiting for me to get on it for at least a month. Today was the day I guess, no more excuses. I tend to do these little projects all together instead of spreading them out.

There is something relaxing and cathartic about doing yard work. I’m not sure if it started out this way, but at some point I started to look forward to mowing the yard. There might be a husbandry element to it. I've explored this before. 

Not that it never feels like a chore, but the feeling I get from a freshly cut lawn overwhelms the labor of it. There are different theories on what’s behind that feeling. It might be the sense of accomplishment that comes from looking out over the landscape. You can get that accomplishment from other places though. If you’ve ever done a work project that everyone raved about. Even putting together a display that your boss really liked, can do that. I’ve developed a knack for displaying bags and shoes while working retail over the years. Setting up product is just problem solving in disguise.

Problem, what’s the best way to show the new stuff to the customers? Solution, decorate as close to the front door as possible. They'll notice the colors and the arrangement. They'll ask "how much? or how many?" The “feel good” part of it is from the creative energy you expend.   

Yard work might not be a creative endeavor, but it does allow the mind to wander a bit.

During my weed puling phase I listened to Riley Gaines, the female swimmer who tied with a man pretending to be a woman. She was on Joe Rogan recently describing her evolution from athlete to advocate. There were a few details I didn’t know about the championship meet. Like, the organizers had to be seen giving the trophy to the man, Leah Thomas. Gaines was told this by a shamefaced NCAA official. I hope we all look back on this time in history and shake our collective heads at the total failure of leadership. How disgraceful.

 I was proud of her talking about the Second Coming of Christ. She also referred to Satan as a deceiver. These types of conversations are getting more popular on Rogan’s show. At first, his guests would just mention the Bible or how an experience with “God” changed their life. Now people are openly preaching Christ. I always wonder what Joe thinks about all that. He definitely tries to soften it by offering alternative viewpoints or using humor to deaden the potency of the Word. But he’s letting people have their say and it’s quite refreshing.

I can’t listen to conversation podcasts while I mow. The engine is too loud. I lose all the detail from the back and forth in their words. I put on music instead. Today it was an instrumental saxophone track that I usually fall asleep to. I didn’t have the time to search out a different station. I didn’t care either. The sun was warm and I was finally back in my yard doing something that felt creative if not relaxing. Yard work is a straightforward problem I can solve, and I really like doing it.

 

Luke 18 and God's Promise to Avenge Speedily

 

Bearing Up and Avenging Speedily

Luke 18 starts out with a parable. It’s a lesson about God’s faithfulness to those who seek justice. It begins, a godless judge becomes tired of a widow approaching him about her adversary and demanding justice. He reasons to himself that if he doesn’t help her, she will bother him about it all the time. He decides to help her, purely due to self-interest.

The Trial

 “Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily, Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?’” (verse 6-8)

There seems to be a discrepancy between God bearing long with us and avenging “speedily”. Those look to be opposites. A legal battle that drags on for years cannot be thought of as a speedy verdict. Even with the ruling in your favor. The agony and cost of a protracted fight is too much for a lot of people. Justice must be speedy and inexpensive or it’s not really justice.

 I’ve been following the Mark Steyn defamation suit that concluded two weeks ago. Sued by the despicable Michael Mann, for writing a blog post that called him a fraud. Much of the scientific community has complained about his sloppy research methods. This being a litigious country though, Mann’s team took the case to Washington DC and won a $1 million. He won because the jury didn’t like right wing journalists like Steyn criticizing the “science” community. Mann wasn’t harmed in any way. The jury agreed with that. The award from the court was punitive and designed to chill free speech going forward. The suit began in 2012 and recently concluded, in 2024.

 It’d difficult to find the most egregious aspect of this case, but the sheer length and cost put Mann v Steyn into the duplicitous category.

The Faithfulness

In God’s legal framework His people are assured of justice. Often it takes a while to manifest in our lives. It can take years, even decades to be realized. So why does Jesus use the word “speedily” when nothing about victory feels quick? I think it has to do with the official record and not the reality of the ongoing situation. In heaven our case is won but on earth, we stand on faith. It’s why He wraps up the parable by mentioning faith. In other words, is there enough faith to believe for victory when the trial is so daunting? But faith is built through trying times. Without a season of waiting on the Lord we would never renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31).

No one needs strength like fighters.

But we don’t wait on the Lord like a judge. He isn’t deciding whether or not to rule in our favor. Just prayers from the Saints cause God to move on our behalf. As Christians we are heirs to the promise and entitled to good gifts like healing, prosperity and peace. He already ruled in our favor when Christ went to the cross and rose on the third day. Faith in our natural trial is where we get tripped up. He is working behind the scenes to correct unjust events. But Jesus reminds us of His presence in our weakness. The struggle to wait is often more than we can handle however. It’s why he reminds us that he “bears long” with us.

The Victory

If this doesn’t create a picture in your mind of a loving father holding his son or daughter while they cry, I don’t know what will. I had asthma as a young boy. I remember struggling to catch my breath after running around on a cold winter day. This wasn’t always the trigger but the symptoms were the same, wheezing and shortness of breath. Even walking from my bedroom to the bathroom was a struggle. My parents were always nearby enduring the long days when I hardly moved. There was nothing to do but wait. We all had some long nights. They believed for my healing before I felt better. I didn’t struggle in later years like I did as a child. Occasionally the humidity would cause me to go into a wheezing episode, but I never doubted God’s faithfulness. I had been through the trial with my parents. I’d seen their comfort and reassurance.

The trials are painful and often long. But God shows up as a comforter and reminds us of His verdict on our behalf.

The challenge for us is to build faith in the struggle, knowing that our Heavenly Father is working when it doesn’t feel like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Routines Are A Super Power

 

Routines: The Pushy Parent You Desperately Need

I’ve been pondering the value of routine and why it’s the closest thing to a superpower that I’ll ever have. 

I’m not studying tonight. Most nights through the week I spend at least an hour, usually two, going over the ISSA (International Sports Science Association) textbook. I either make notes in the study guide or read a new section. It feels less daunting than it did when I first opened the package in the mail. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot to learn. But I’ve got a routine going. That’s the primary piece of success to me. Even exercise works this way. Progress is impossible if you keep changing your routine and miss big chunks of the week. When you make yourself do the same thing, day after day, it’s not as difficult. Besides I’m learning a lot about the body and nutrition. It’s interesting. 

Choices 

My writing has suffered a little. I’m not able to compose as much. But it’s a trade off I need right now. I expect that I’ll get certified as a trainer and make some extra money after I take the test. Right now I need to get the material in my head.

I ran with my group last night along the riverfront. This is becoming a new Thursday night routine that’s difficult because it’s right after work. It’s frustrating that I haven’t improved my speed any significant margin. I can run fast but I can’t carry on a conversation at the quicker pace. That’s a part of it. You need to be able to run and talk without getting out of breath. I can’t do that for very long. 

I hang in there but I don’t say much. I probably worry too much about this stuff. I’m fortunate to be able to run at all. My health is good and eat better than ever. There is a long way to go on the diet side of things. But I’ve cut down significantly on fast food and sugar. Sugar still needs to be an occasional thing and not a daily intake. Thankfully ice cream doesn’t have sugar or I’d be in real trouble (LOL).

Decisions

As for writing, the reason I’m struggling is that I don’t hardly do anything. My days are boring. What I mean is, I don’t explore enough. I attend the usual service on Saturday night at church. My group runs on Saturday morning and Thursday night. I hit the gym on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I eat breakfast with my mom on Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is a short walk with a podcast. I talk to my cousin and Sunday night and the week begins anew.

 Already mentioned is my schedule for studying. I’m a creature of habit, but that doesn’t lend itself well to writing. 

Unless I want to blog about the news all day like Ace of Spades. He probably doesn’t make that much money but he’s found a niche. Could I do that even with a decent paycheck? For a while, yes, but I think the stream of bad news would depress me after a while. My routine keeps me going while also keeping me from busting out. Without some level of consistency, I’m not sure I would be effective at anything. Whenever I encounter a new wrinkle in my schedule, like this personal training course, I get to work establishing a routine. I’m sure even as a traveling salesman I’d do the same thing. Check into the hotel, find a place to eat and go over emails. Then wake up early and run or weight lift weights, take a shower and start meeting with my contacts for the day. I’d repeat some form of this every time I traveled. 

Habits

Does that make me unique? I don’t think so. The uniqueness might be in the level of detail on the schedule. Some are happy to play with a loose framework. Others need an hour by hour breakdown. For me, it comes down to NOT having to decide what to do. The trick with routines is taking away as many chances to say NO as possible. The more detail there is, the less chance there is to waste time. It’s why signing up for running clubs or group classes at the gym works better than just agreeing with that internal (annoying) voice that pesters you about exercise. Telling yourself things like “I should really work out more” is worthless. When you pay for it, or if it’s on a schedule you’re more likely to go. This isn’t something I looked up so I may be on thin ice here. It’s possible there is no difference but I doubt it. Additionally, having a lead role in a group is a tighter bind to that function. If you’re the one who fills the water jugs, for instance, or leads the 9 minute pace group you won’t miss.  

I’ve seen this in my own life whether volunteering at church or giving people rides to a party. These connections and responsibilities make it more likely I’ll show up. That’s half of it after all. Tight routines actually take away the ‘stay or go’ decisions that are much harder to make early in the morning. Decisions are stressful; planning is easy. Remember when your mom woke you up for school? How many times did you want to go back to sleep? The difference was you didn’t have a choice. Routine removes choice. It’s a pushy parent when you desperately need one. 

Conclusion

You can still build in off time as a reward. That’s what I’m calling tonight, my off night. Spaghetti and sausage with some garlic bread is on the menu. Friday is once again becoming a consistent pasta night for me. Another day another routine.