Getting up/Going to work early. Okay. Leave home at 6:30AM; Arrive at work at 6:45AM. I did that today. It’s perfect—a very private time to think about and make plans for the three primary arenas of life. There’s the personal part (like family and friends and “Downton Abbey” and “The Good Wife” and seeing if you can keep the plant alive and doing the laundry). Then there is work. Of greater to lesser engagement depending on the day, but always the activity that, even on the worst of days, gives your life purpose. Work may be about doing something exciting and/or interesting and/or meaningful; it may be about putting you out in the world with like-minded people; it may be about a paycheck—whichever or whatever combination thereof, it is always purposeful. Finally there are our ‘love’ lives—as in the personal pursuits that matter to each of us the most, that we love and of which we are proud and excited to be a part. These interests/loves may be a hobby, may even be the work we do for money or they may simply be what validates who we are because of the intensity of our feelings about them. In any case they are a very big reason to be up early.

For me it is only possible to keep all of this in perspective if I think about it early in the morning. Can be on my couch or at my desk, just has to be early and quiet and there must be coffee.

Resolution #1 is therefore declared valid for the year. Really? For the whole year? So never sleep later than 5AM. Unless it is a slow cold weekend and it really is okay to just roll over and drop back into a winter’s sleep under that great big fat fluffy reassuring security-comforter.