February 2019: Working on my newsletter habit!
Hope you had a great January!
We made it through the "polar vortex" here in Chicagoland.
Useful Tools and Resources
- If you'd like to build or break a habit, I highly recommend James Clear's new book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.
- To build a habit, make it:
- Obvious
- Attractive
- Easy
- Satisfying
- To break a habit, make it:
- Invisible
- Unattractive
- Difficult
- Unsatisfying
- To build a habit, make it:
- If you'd like to read a summary/review of the book, check out Eric Barker's blogpost: "How To Easily Build Good Habits: 4 Secrets From Research"
- I really like the Art of Manliness podcast, and the recent episodes with James Clear ("A Proven System for Building and Breaking Habits") and Shane Parrish ("Using Mental Models to Make Better Decisions") are really worth a listen, especially if you're interested in habit change and/or mental models!
- I've decided to kick-start my writing habit for 2019 using a service called StickK. If I don't write 500 words a day, a donation gets made to the NRA (an organization I'd rather not support)! Putting money on the line can be a great motivator for habit change, and it's worked well for me, so far.
- I really enjoyed reading Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. Valuable and brief reads for anyone with anything to say!
- I'm looking forward to reading Kleon's next book, Keep Going
- Absolutely loving the following kitchen/household upgrades (these are Amazon affiliate links):
Questions I'm Pondering
- What does it look like to follow Christ in the suburbs?
- How can Christians be known for building community in an increasingly-fragmented society? (Along those lines, I highly recommend this video by Andy Crouch: "Overcoming Our Greatest Affliction")
- What's the relationship between the improper "knowledge of good and evil" (grasped-at in the Fall, cf. Gen 3) and the proper discernment of good and evil required in Christian ethics?
Projects I'm Working On
- My dissertation. Working on Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's readings of Genesis 1–3 and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7).
- Growing, managing, and editing Anglican Pastor.
- Coordinating pastoral care at my church.
- Losing 10 lbs by following the Slow Carb Diet.
One More Thing...
Where do you get your strongest sense of community from?
Family? Friends? Church? Neighbors? People online?
Just curious.
Cheers,
~Josh
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