Beginning as I’ll Go On in 2015

Leigh Bardugo, author of the Grisha Trilogy (and cause of my Halloween costume) is running a series of creativity sprints, starting at noon today.  The goal is to “Begin as You Mean to Go On” in the new year (she has a FAQ here).

This doesn’t necessarily mean, if you plan to clean your garage this year, that you’ll go out and clean the whole thing, or even spend two hours on it, to really make a good start today.  Even spending five minutes counts.

Why?  Because now cleaning your garage is a thing you do!

On January 2nd, you won’t have to choose to  start cleaning your garage, you’ll just be continuing the work you already began (and get to take advantage of the Seinfeld Streak).

So here’s what I’m planning to do today (I’ll come back and edit in strikethroughs as I knock things out):

• Choose my saint of the month
• Bake scones
• Twenty minutes of lectio divina
• Apply for one job (my fellowship ends in June, so this is a habit I really need to build)

I’ve got other things I’d like to do (pleasure reading, work on my Udacity class, some writing, gym), but I’m going to hold those four as my Begin As You Mean to Go On commitments–things I’ll be able to return to tomorrow, the next day, etc and think “This is something I already have a habit of doing, not something I’m starting de novo.”

What (if anything) will you deliberately begin today?

P.S. Usually when I pick a Saint of the Month, I have a bit of tsuris about what I’ll do with the saint — last month, I thought about kiboshing the whole thing.  But I figured, in the spirit of Begin as You Mean to Go On, I should do the smallest part of engaging with saints — just plain picking one, and continue the project tomorrow.

So I spun up Jen Fulwiler’s saint generator and pulled up…. Saint Augustine!

I get to begin the year in the company of my confirmation saint, and I already know how I’ll be seeking him out.  Colin Garbarino is running a book group for Augustine’s On Christine Doctrine from January to March, and I’m now all signed up!

Sometimes the first step makes all the subsequent ones fall in place.