Welcome to the New Year

Welcome to the New Year! I love the new year. Although I am sad to see the holiday season go, I look forward to a mark in the year when I can assess things that I want to change and do better. Of course, deciding what I need to do better and actually doing them are two very different things. I have been thinking of this for the last few weeks on and off and have decided that if there was ever a time in my life when I should/could succeed at some of those 'perpetual' new year's resolutions, that now is the time.

With the move to India, our lives are totally changed from what they were a few short months ago. I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule, perhaps more now than I've ever had in my working life. I have no yard to take care of and few chores around the house. My life mainly consists of 1) Work; 2) Church; 3) Family, with few distractions outside of these areas. When I think about those areas of my life, I have huge challenges at work and need to develop some new habits to make sure that my efforts succeed. I have a tremendous opportunity to serve in the Church and do some real good here in India. I also have a changing family life. Rebecca is headed off to college in a few months and Michelle and I will be here alone. A perfect opportunity to renew some habits that I have gotten out of since we were dating in college.

So how to go about all this change and be successful? I've been reading a lot about habits on a blog called ZenHabits.net and LifeHacker.com. Click the links and search for habits and you'll have more to read than you can do in one sitting. I think one thing I need to do is not get too anxious and try to make too many changes at once. (Click this link to read a theory about that.) That is going to be hard, given the number of things in my life that can be changed and improved. Still, I'm going to start a few things, but spend my time focusing on one habit at a time for a few months. I'm also going to use this nifty habit list, which hopefully will help me see how I'm doing.

So maybe this will be the year to make some very permanent changes. It is going well so far! :)