jWinters.com

 On Christ the King Sunday in November, the people of University Lutheran church made pledges to attempt to not turn away from certain transformative things that they thought God might be leading them towards.  Those transformative areas were in terms of their personal transformation (learning, activities, attitudes), relational transformation (relationships with those already in the Body of Christ), and missional transformation (those outside of the church - dechurched and unchurched).  

As a part of that process, I, as their pastor and instigator of these pledges, pledged something myself - that I would call them quarterly and help them through the process, praying for them and giving helpful hints and advice here and there.

I’ve been noticing that very few people actually grasp how to approach life change and habit change.  

That’s not that startling of a statement.  If you’ve ever known someone on a diet or someone who has been trying to quit a certain behavior, you begin to realize the tough work involved in making a habit change.  Our psyches and our spirits tend to lean towards incremental, easy change - just look at the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Changing a habit is a shock to our system, a herculean task that seems like only Jesus could really do.  

One of my habit change goals is to begin writing on this blog again, 30 minutes a day.  I’ve had that habit change goal for 17 days now, and I’m experiencing the hardship of trying to find just 30 minutes to myself in order to do what I said I would do.  It’s tough.  I have to be disciplined about it and I have to say “no” to what I would normally do - and deal with the guilt of leaving my wife alone watching tv for 30 minutes.  

I track my habit change goals with a sheet of paper and a collection of app’s for my Android phone.

My goals are:

• Read 30 minutes a day 
• Write 30 minutes a day
• Get at least 7.5 hours of sleep (SO failing at this one!)
• Get to the gym 6 days a week
• Take my blood pressure every day and log it
• Walk with my wife every night
• Do the Daily Lectionary readings as devotions
• and keep count of my calories

I have my sheet of paper, and I have a few apps and websites:

• Reading - Goodreads mobile website on my phone helps me track my progress on my books
• Writing - I normally blog when I write, so they get out via this medium
• 7.5 hours of sleep - I use an Android app called Sleep Bot
• Get to the gym and count my calories - I use an app called My Fitness Pal
• Blood pressure, walk, and daily lectionary, along with a few other reminders - I use an app called Habit Droid

In addition to all of this stuff, I also track my time spent on certain things at work using a time tracking website called Toggl while I’m at work.

What do you do to track life change?  How do you work out the methods of those goals that you set?  Write it in the comments or on Facebook. I would love to hear about it.