Perseverance

photoLast year, one of my resolutions was to read the Old Testament.  My goal was to read the whole thing, but here’s the kicker: I was going to read one chapter a day, first in Hebrew, and then the same chapter in Greek.

Ha!

I’ve fallen pretty far short of my goal.  Hitting the goal relied on my being able to spend a couple of extra hours every weekend reading, and that didn’t happen.

On the other hand, the one chapter a day did happen.  So the photo here marks my position as of December 31 — just finished 1 Kings, with the story of Micaiah ben Imlah and the death of Ahaz.  And now I’ve readjusted my goal: one year from now, I plan to be in the middle of Psalms in my reading, which means the entire thing will take me two and a half years (closer to three, once I’ve read the deuterocanonical books).

Takeaways:

1. The goal mattered.  It gave me a target.

2. The daily chapter was essential.  I gave myself no excuses, I read when I was sick and when I was traveling for work and every single day, no matter what.

3. It was a lot easier to get my chapter in if I could do it in the morning.

4. It got easier as I went.

5. Now I need to (re-)apply the same lessons to writing.

About David

I'm a writer. This is my blog.
This entry was posted in How to Write and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Perseverance

Leave a Reply to David Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.