Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Years ago now, I read a book called “Grit” by Angela Duckworth. I gave it 4 stars on GoodReads.
Side note: 5 of 5 is reserved for “Will read again / Great Book” where 4 of 5 is “Great Book, but likely won’t read again”. So, 4 is a solid rating in my view. I tend to recommend books to others that I rate 4 and 5 stars.
In that book she talks about a “Hard Thing Rule” in her family. Where each person in her family must actively be doing a difficult thing.
The example I recall, and I may be off, is that if one of her kids signed up for Tuba… they couldn’t quick halfway through the school year. They had to complete the year.
The whole point is to develop “Grit” or as she defines it “sticking with things over the very long term until you master them.”
I didn’t grasp it then, but I’ve gone on to apply a similar practice in my own life and I think that book was Ground Zero in kicking that off for me.
The idea of regularly experimenting, trying difficult things, pushing against laziness and habits.
I finished reading that book in November 2018 and went on to run my first marathon in March 2020.
I’ve also enjoyed books like Endurance (5 Stars), Alone (4 Stars), and The Wager (4 Stars) that all talk about aspects of humans overcoming difficult obstacles and survival experiences.
The conclusion I’ve come to is that we’re able to do so much more than we think we can.
To that end, I want to have a “Challenge” series on here. Whenever I or my family take on a Challenge, I’d like to write about it and lay out the context.
For instance, right now we have a “No TV after 7:30pm” challenge going on in September.
Why?
Well… our (really my) tendency would be to come home, have dinner, chill with the kids, help with bedtime and then retire to watch TV. Or on Weekends, stay up late and watch some show, YouTube, or Movie.
Instead, now, Rach and I spend more time together. We may read or chat. We may get ahead on something else we’re working on.
The difficult part with this challenge is you no longer have the default time filler of TV to entertain you. You’re left with your thoughts, with figuring out other things to occupy you, with relating more with one another. It’s approximately 10-16 hours of time back each week.
*Follow Up*
Well… you may be wondering, “How did it go?“
I write this on October 7th, 2024, and I’d say it went mostly OK. We were able to somewhat easily turn off the TV at 7:30pm each day (including weekends) or if it was already close to 7:30pm, we just didn’t bother. I didn’t do an analytic deep dive, but I’d say we roughly got back about 35-55 hours… which is wild to think about.
That said, I found that probably halfway into the month I would default to YouTube on my phone more than previously. I did that for probably 7-10 days and then cut back on it toward the end of the month.
I found that we spent more family time together, read books more, and had a more consistent bedtime.
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