[0:00]It's a new year and you want to be more faithful with it. So what should you do? Well, probably build some good habits, right?
[0:07]But which habits should you start doing?
[0:11]In this video, I want to go through the five key habits that really any Christian should be doing, not just to grow spiritually, but also to grow in their faithfulness in all areas of life.
[0:22]And at the end, I'm going to be sharing with you a free worksheet you can download to implement this plan in your own life.
[0:28]In first Timothy 4:7-8, the Apostle Paul writes, have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
[0:48]I love this passage because Paul is acknowledging, one, that bodily training is of some value, right? He says that explicitly, exercise is beneficial.
[0:58]It has, it's implied here, benefits for this life. And so he's saying don't ignore that.
[1:03]He said, but the most important thing is godliness, to exercise, to train yourself, to discipline yourself, similar to how you might do with exercise, but in godly habits, which is why Christians rightly prioritize spiritual disciplines, because this is the most important part.
[1:22]But it's not the only part of life. So I think one of the wisest things we can do is build a chain of habits that sort of reinforce each other.
[1:32]The spiritual disciplines and the exercise and a couple other things.
[1:36]This is what James Clear in his book Atomic Habits calls habit stacking.
[1:40]So what are these five habits that you should be getting consistent with?
[1:44]Number one is daily Bible reading.
[1:47]Now, I will link to a playlist of a bunch of videos that will help you choose a Bible reading plan, how to be consistent with it, build a habit of all that.
[1:54]All I want to say in this video is you should be in the word each day.
[1:59]If you want to train yourself for godliness, you need to know what God says.
[2:04]Even if you just read a single verse each day, it's going to give you something to chew on and meditate on throughout the day.
[2:12]The trick is, build it into a habit. The second habit is prayer. This is another spiritual discipline.
[2:18]If we want to hear from God in his word, we also need to be speaking to him each day in prayer.
[2:24]And it's great if you're praying after meals, and if you're praying as you're going throughout your day, but building this into your day is a discipline, especially in the morning is a really healthy way to begin the day.
[2:36]Personally, I've gained a lot of benefit from actually planning my prayer time.
[2:40]Reading a resource like Valley of Vision to sort of stir your heart to pray more, or praying responsively to the Bible, to what you read, just praying it back to the Lord.
[2:50]I've talked about before on here these these prayer cards that I have, I just have some index cards that have prayer requests on them.
[2:57]And I'll just pray through a few of those, just to give some structure and some uh clarity to my habit of prayer each morning.
[3:06]You've probably had this experience yourself, but when you start your day with prayer, it tends to be a better day.
[3:10]Your mind is focused on the things of the Lord, the Spirit is empowering you to serve him, and you just have a better perspective on the day.
[3:20]So if you don't have this habit already, build in a plan for prayer.
[3:25]The third habit is organize your day.
[3:28]There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and it only takes about five minutes to make a simple plan.
[3:36]So do this first thing or at least when you first start your work for the day, sit down and write down the three most important tasks for the day, and then circle one of them and say, I'm going to do this one thing as the priority.
[3:49]It's going to get done today, no matter what.
[3:52]Then, time box that, and all that means is decide when you're going to do that important task or even all three of those important tasks.
[4:00]Work it in around your lunch, around your meetings, around whatever other errands you have to do today.
[4:05]But spending those five minutes planning the day, brings so much more structure to it.
[4:10]It makes sure that you are prioritizing the important stuff, not just the urgent things.
[4:14]I'm telling you, this is a habit that will completely change your life.
[4:18]And the fourth habit is daily walks.
[4:21]There's a few things we really need in order to thrive.
[4:25]We need exercise, we need time to think and process, and we need time in creation.
[4:31]And walking can get you all three of those if you walk outside.
[4:34]But often we feel like we can't take the time to get away from work or watching the kids or whatever the responsibilities we have.
[4:43]But I'll just tell you from my experience, I have learned I really can't afford not to.
[4:48]Walking is one of the most effective ways to burn fat. Walking will help you process all the noise in your life, will help you come up with good ideas, most of the ideas I come up with that are actually successful and helpful for redeeming productivity, come while I'm out on a walk.
[5:07]Walking's beneficial to your stress, and walking raises your mind upward towards bigger things in life.
[5:13]If you're doing it outside, you're looking at creation, it gives you cause to worship God. It it lifts your mind to be praying to him about things.
[5:22]Walking is awesome, okay? And and if if you're not able-bodied that you're that you're able to walk, substitute with some other sort of exercise or some other way to get outside and spend some time alone in creation, getting some exercise.
[5:37]It's so worth it. And I know we're all busy and sometimes this takes getting creative or waking up early or moving your schedule around, but whatever you can do, if you can do it, this is a habit well worth cultivating into your daily life.
[5:51]And the fifth habit I'm going to recommend to you is reading instead of scrolling.
[5:55]A couple of years ago, I got off of social media and I replaced that time of scrolling with reading real books.
[6:01]I get exposed to higher quality ideas. I get taken out of our present moment, right? The always ever, never ending now of social media.
[6:11]Where you're like, oh, what's new, what's new, what's new. You get transported back to read the thoughts of of Puritans or or to read fiction, classic works of that or to read theology that raises your mind up to to bigger ideas.
[6:24]Reading is wonderful, but it gets gets pushed out by the scrolling.
[6:32]And so swap it out. Exchange scrolling for reading. Now, one of the best ways you can do this is build it into your daily routine as a habit.
[6:40]And when you're doing your Bible reading and prayer, just follow that up with a couple pages of reading.
[6:44]This is wonderful on breaks too.
[6:47]I've kept this um book stand here and I it's like a little thing, it lays flat, I can keep it in my drawer.
[6:55]But during the day, I fold it out, I put it here, and next to my computer, I have an open physical book.
[7:00]And so when I want a break, when I'm like, I I just need to take my mind off of work for a minute, Oh, it's right there, open to the page, and I'll just read a page, or a paragraph, or a sub section.
[7:11]And little by little, you start getting through these books.
[7:15]Now, if you've read my book, Redeeming Productivity, or you've been following my work for any amount of time, you know that what I just described are power habits.
[7:25]Right? It's just five habits, Prayer, Organize, Reading, Exercise, Word, P O W E R.
[7:31]I talk about them in the book. We've kind of built even our goal planner around these daily habits.
[7:38]It is something that has been life-changing for me, and I think it will be for you too.
[7:41]Now, you don't have to do these in the morning, but that's the time I recommend.
[7:44]Mornings are the most defensible time in most of our schedules. And so toward that end, I've created a free morning routine planner.
[7:51]You can download that from the link in the description.
[7:54]That will help you make a plan for when to go to bed, when to wake up, which habits do in which order and fit it into your unique life circumstances.
[8:04]So download that PDF and start making a plan for implementing these five habits in your life this year.
[8:10]Because I can promise you this, if you get those habits going in your life, you're going to look back a year from now and you will be astounded at your growth, both spiritually and in your personal productivity.
