Focusing on the Foundations
Concentration: Physical
Category: Health
Goal: A 10 p.m. bedtime
I'm dividing my Foundation 2013 efforts into three categories: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual. Not that I believe that body, mind, and spirit are truly separate, any more than the Christian Trinity is separable. As with the Trinity, however, it is sometimes helpful to consider the "persons" individually, if only for the sake of balance. I could have chosen different categories, or more, or fewer—but these will do, and I have a pernicious tendency toward analysis paralysis, so it is what it is.
Anyway, a first step that requires little analysis is to set a consistent bedtime of 10 p.m. That means in bed with the lights out, so all the preliminaries must be completed before then. For most of my life I've let circumstances (some avoidable, some not) dictate my bedtime, but it's abundantly clear that I do better in almost every way when I'm in bed by ten and asleep soon thereafter. Of course there will always be exceptions, but with this goal I choose "rules with occasional exceptions" over anarchy.
What I need next is a system of measuring progress/compliance with the goals I set. As I've discovered with my book-reading goal, what gets measured is much more likely to be accomplished. But first, a first step. (See above comment about analysis paralysis.)
